Five books that have helped me develop

I made my first forays into web development back in 1998, with my own Geocities homepage (now sadly defunct). It was after I developed my first ‘proper’ website (an unoffical guide to the FIFA Club World Championship 2000; please don’t laugh, this was eight years ago…) that I decided I wanted to be a professional developer.

I’m mostly self-taught, but there’s no way I would have been able to make a career out of it — and keep interested in it — without the aid of the books below.

Please note: I’m not saying that these are necessarily the best books available, just that they have been — and continue to be — inspirational to me. OK, in no particular order…

• Designing With Web Standards, by Jeffrey Zeldman

  Probably the daddy of them all. This book explains clearly and concisely the importance of maintaining standards and why the old tables-based websites should be phased out. Encouraged me to make the big shift from my old bad habits.

  There’s a lot of theory in this book, and it’s probably only halfway through that the code examples begin to appear; but that doesn’t stop it from being an interesting read. Although it’s apparently showing its age a little now, much of the theory is still valid and I’d recommend this to any entry-level developers.

• Web Standards Solutions, by Dan Cederholm

  After Zeldman’s book, I’d recommend this. It picks up the themes and runs with them, providing plenty of real-life coding examples, many of which I still use to this day. It covers all of the principal HTML elements we use day-to-day, and you’ll feel like an expert when you finish it.

• DOM Scripting, by Jeremy Keith

  When you’ve got your HTML and CSS up to scratch, this is an excellent introduction to adding enhancements to your pages, without unnecessary and intrusive code. Easy to follow examples will have you making more interactive and dynamic pages in no time.

• Transcending CSS, by Andy Clarke

  My latest read, and a real treat. A beautifully designed and illustrated manifesto of progressive web design, based on a solid understanding of design and markup. Oversized and full colour throughout, it’s the closest thing yet to a web development coffee table book — but don’t think it’s just pretty, it’s also very useful.

  I gave a fuller review over at CSS3.info, and I’m finding it more and more useful. I can’t wait to see what web pages look like in a year’s time when more people have read this.

• CSS Pocket Reference, by Eric A. Meyer

  Last but by no means least, this is indispensable to me. Exactly what it says it is: a pocket-sized guide to CSS2.1 selectors. I carry this around with me always; after all, it’s hard to remember every single facet of CSS, and it’s a lot quicker than visiting W3Schools.com, for example.

  I can’t wait until there’s a CSS3 edition — at the very least, I’ll need to replace my battered and dog-eared copy soon.

So, that’s my pick of the books that have helped me the most in my career to date. I’d love to hear of any recommendations to add to my library.