[Ash Scott]

Nice find man For web design i tend to use the Web Designers Idea Book - £10 of amazon.co.uk

[webdevelopers]

Nice contributory share @ Web Design Rawkes! I like to see more and more posts like this one in future too....... Do continue your good work!

[PentaWebExperts.com]

Thanks for the list that is really helpful to better understand the Html, CSS and many more....

[2cool designs]

Thanks, for the info. I got principles of beautiful web designing and i too will check out.

[ayoungh]

Done, let me know when you get it

[dreamcon]

Thank you for sharing. I have been looking for this list on internet and found this is very useful.

[Afternoon Sun]

Just bumped into this post and find this very helpful. Thanks for sharing author! I have this bookmarked... Nice one!

[Web design london]

Rob, on 22 March 2008 - 07:53 PM, said:

Note: I posted this in another thread, but I thought it might be useful to everyone as a single post. It will be much easier to find that way.


I'm a big fan of learning through books, so I will share with you some of my recommended titles on web development.

I will update this list periodically.


Web design theory
The Priciples of Beautiful Web Design - This book will teach you all the basic theory of design, in relation to web design. You'll learn how to lay solid foundations to a website, that will allow you to create 'sound' designs, way before you even think about how it is going to look.

HTML
HTML 4 For The World Wide Web - This book was one of the first I bought on the subject, over 8 years ago now! It covered the basics of HTML, and after about a week I was confident at writing up, and understanding, my very own website from scratch. I'm not sure this book is being published any more, so you might need to find something similar.

CSS
I taught myself CSS from practice, tutorials and articles online, but I have, and highly recommend the following CSS reference book: The Ultimate CSS Reference

Javascript
Javascript - The Definitive Guide - The book on Javascript. It covers absolutely everything you could possibly want to know, and it is heavy to boot!

Javascript Phrasebook - Tiny book, packed full of snippets of code for various problems.

PHP/MySQL
PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites - This was my first book on PHP, and it lays the groundwork for you to create some simple scripts, using databases.

PHP & MySQL Bible - Extremely thick book, covers most of PHP. Is a great reference book.

PHP Cookbook - Packed to the brim with excellent and useful snippets of code, for common coding problems. I constantly find myself going back to this book for advice.

PHP Phrasebook - Tiny little book, full of snippets of code. It's a great thing to keep at arms reach.

MySQL Phrasebook - Same as above, but covering MySQL.

PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice - This is quite a complex and laborious read, but it will help you step into more advanced coding practices, such as Object Oriented Programming (OOP), and Patterns.

Web development practices
Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion - This is a must if you want to get serious with web development. Version control is basically a history of everything you've done, which allows you to revert back to things you've done in the past, which in turn acts as a great backup tool. Think Apple Time Machine, but for text/programming files.


I could recommend a tonne more; my bookshelf actually fell off once because of the amount of web development books! What I've suggested here will be more than adequate for beginning, though.

Rob

Thats a lot of books! Agree good for reference but most questions u can type into google without spenging all ur pennies on books.

[slawcka]

What do you think of sitepoints SEXY WEB DESIGN http://www.sitepoint.com/books/sexy1/ ?

[Gibson]

slawcka, on 10 October 2011 - 10:40 PM, said:

What do you think of sitepoints SEXY WEB DESIGN http://www.sitepoint.com/books/sexy1/ ?

Bah - all the usual marketing buzzwords - Let's see, in the middle section 3 paragraphs we have "Breathtaking, Gorgeous, Timeless, Stunning x 2" - with these adjectives, anyone would think they're talking about a painting by Rembrandt not a templatey website.
Sounds like the QVC shopping channel describing the newest "original authentic reproduction diamante" products.

[<DanMahony />]

notbanksy, on 22 March 2008 - 08:42 PM, said:

Thanks for the list Rob - I love to have books too, and have just bought The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here...

Meantime, I can suggest a book to avoid:
How to do everything with php & mysql - should be called 'how to make a shopping cart or simple cms with php mysql, in a poorly explained fashion'
I did learn the basics of php using this book, but it was badly thought out IMO, and thank god I got it from the library instead of buying it.

Has anyone read Learn to Program by Chris Pine? The online tutorial is excellent, but haven't got round to buying the book yet.

Couldn't agree more, How to do everything with php and mysql is a terrible book.

I like the head first series, they are very easy to learn from and explain everything in a simple way. Better for beginners though, not sure how much value they would hold for more advanced developers...

[oakleaves]

<timewarp>

[Renaissance-Design]

oakleaves, on 30 November 2011 - 03:43 PM, said:

<timewarp>

It's just a jump to the left...

This post has been edited by Renaissance-Design: 30 November 2011 - 03:45 PM

[david244us]

Glad I found this list thank you very much. If I'm new and starting web design, would anyone recommend going in the order that these books are laid out. I am not exactly new I have taken one web design class so I am familiar with html to a point. But I am wanting to hear what some of you pros think thanks.

[JustOliver]

Heyup, I'm struggling to decide which book to buy and was hoping someone here could add their input, I could just buy all 3 but I'd rather not if the same or similar points are going to be covered in each one and I'd rather not buy more than one at a time so I don't end up with a shelf full of new and shiny but completely un-read books.

The 3 I can't quite choose between are Don't Make Me Think, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design (SitePoint) and The Non-Designers Design Book. I don't really want to buy all 3 at once so if anyone has any recommendations for which to read first, or perhaps I only need to read one and discard the rest, then please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[richard2012]

Hi Rob,

I have used dreamweaver CS4 for the last year for basic websites. However I now would like to build a catalog site showing just products with "Add to quote" or "request information". I will have about a 1000 products.

Do you know or any good books for designing online catalogs in dreamweaver or do you think it would be best to use a different software for this?

There are many online catalog builders but they all look unprofessional.

p.s. I don't really have must knowledge of php / mysql.

your help would be much appreciated.

Richard.

[Ivory-Rose]

JustOliver, on 10 February 2012 - 03:45 PM, said:

The 3 I can't quite choose between are Don't Make Me Think, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design (SitePoint) and The Non-Designers Design Book. I don't really want to buy all 3 at once so if anyone has any recommendations for which to read first, or perhaps I only need to read one and discard the rest, then please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

I've just bought The Principles of Beautiful Web Design (1st edition). After reading just the preface and the first chapter about layouts, I already felt like I had learned a lot. I've picked up two new practices (the rule of thirds and grid layouts) and am able to look at design slightly differently.

I'm just about to begin chapter 3, but so far I'm really digging this book. It's clear and easy to understand, and the author gives a step by step guide for the design process of a website, which you can use to make the website alongside him, or make your own site using the same practices (which is what I'm doing).

I'm actually hoping to get the other two books that you mentioned myself at some point, but so far, I could probably do fine with just this one. If I do get hold of the other two or any others, I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I, like others earlier, would recommend The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.

[Giraffic]

Design for Hackers is an awesome book

[logonlinepooros]

Hey thanks a lot for providing this great book from which we can able to learn so may things.. Its best for web designer to keep in practice.. I will find this book pdf..