Web resources are awesome in a number of ways: often updated and current, instantly available for free, and they’re usually technically savvy. Unfortunately, they can be a little rough around the edges – most tutorials aren’t created by someone who is proficient and writing or familiar with teaching. The main advantage a book can provide is that the information is usually organized and presented much more clearly than your average website. Books about code tend to contain little tutorials that demonstrate fundamental concepts, divided into chapters of increasing complexity.

While shopping for educational books, I tend to divide a book into one of three categories:

• Useless: For one reason or another, this book won’t help me in a way that justifies the cost
• Bootstrap Books: This is usually a “Topic 101″ book that you can consume and sell before it’s devalued. Code books always fall into this category.
• Foundational Concepts: These are worth their weight in gold because they impart knowledge that transcends technology and medium.

Bootstrap Books

My list of bootstrap books is concise, and I’m a big fan of the Visual Quickstart series – they are inexpensive and great for absolute beginners. I’ve enjoyed the “Headfirst” series much less, finding that the fluffy graphics and embellished page layout doesn’t actually help me learn.

HTML, XHTML & CSS Visual QuickStart

Grade: A+

Recommendation: This is THE book for someone who is just learning markup.

Review: Ok, so my copy is actually the 3rd edition and I haven’t cracked it open in years, but it was super valuable back then and I stand by my recommendation. The Visual QuickStart series is concise and useful. They are usually perfect books to consume, learn from, and then eventually progress.

JavaScript & AJAX Visual QuickStart

Grade: A+

Recommendation: Starting with this book can save you tons of time.

Review: Basically everything I said about the XHTML & CSS book applies to this. You won’t use this book for long, you won’t likely refer to it often, but it serves a very valuable purpose: get you on your feet quickly. You can always learn what you need, then sell it on eBay, Craigslist or whatever to recoup some of the cost.

XML (Second Edition)

Grade: A+

Recommendation: Depending on your role, you may never need another XML book.

Review: Buy this book and learn your way around one of the most useful tools at your disposal. Depending on your exact role, you may not need to move past this. XML is simple and extremely powerful. Like anything in this world, you can find at the bookstore fat tomes that cater to those who truly geek out on XML if you like.

PHP for the WWW

Grade: A+

Recommendation: Yeah, more A+ … it’s like I’m getting kickbacks from Peachpit.

Review: Newer versions cover PHP & MySQL, which is probably even more useful, if that’s actually possible. I wrote my first contact form with the tutorial from this book. This book is extra valuable given the practical usefulness of PHP and mySQL to front-end people like myself who still want access to a little more server side power.

Ajax, Javascript & PHP All in One

Grade: D

Recommendation: Save your money (notice how this book isn’t linked?)

Review: A neat concept, because the three technologies are quite complimentary. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t spend enough time in them to sufficiently educate a newbie coder. Combined with the higher price tag, I have to say that I wouldn’t recommend it. Additionally, you should learn JavaScript first, then AJAX …

Head First Ajax

Grade: F+

Recommendation: Google “AJAX” and skim the results for 20 mins. Same result.

Review: Great concept – finding a more effective way to deliver information, presenting it for max understanding and absorption. Doesn’t work, though. Yes, we are all sick of the dry and boring tutorial books, but they work for a reason. At the end of this book, I didn’t feel like I had learned as much as I expected (given its size and price tag).

Search Engine Optimization

Grade: B-

Recommendation: This is an entry level book, but very useful.

Review: The first 8 chapters deal with concepts that adept web geeks should know (optimizing structure and content). I bought it because of a chapter about Google Analytics, which sparked off a whole little sub-craze of mine. Couched in technology of the day, this book will eventually be obsolete.

DOM Scripting

Grade: B

Recommendation: The book almost succeeds at transcending today’s technology.

Review: This book is couched in current programming techniques, so eventually it will be obsolete. Yet, it does constantly communicate and reinforce the notion that JavaScripting IS traversing and manipulating the DOM. I bumped the grade up a notch because the author still tried to relate fundamental ideas as much as possible.

Designing With Web Standards

Grade: B

Recommendation: About the same as the DOM Scripting Book

Review: Again, unfortunately couched in current technology, but tries to express fundamentals. It pains me to not give this book an A++ as I am a huge fan of Zeldman’s writing and body of work. Again, this is best for a newbie who needs to learn how and why they should design and code to a certain standard.

PHP Cookbook

Grade: A

Recommendation: This is for someone who wants to go all in on the PHP front.

Review: O’Reilly books hold the same title as the Visual Quickstart books, but in a different space. They are my defacto choice when I need to buy a really expansive tome about a particular topic. This cookbook has all kinds of recipes and is perfect for a front end person hoping to become proficient in PHP.

Timeless Fundamental Knowledge

These books are the real deal, a book I can love and keep and put on my shelf. These books will engage you in some kind of deep intellectual way. Even if they’re not directly or specifically on the topic of web design, I consider them extremely valuable to any web geek.

Designing Interactions

Grade: A++

Recommendation: Outstanding, a must have for anyone that designs anything.

Review: This books is an absolute win, jam packed with ultra useful information on every single page. It’s about people using things, plain and simple. The author has compiled the knowledge of some of the worlds most successful designers and design efforts into a book with a ridiculously high caliber of information. Get it now.

Typography Workbook

Grade: A+

Recommendation: Immediate, tangible benefits from reading any page within.

Review: If you design anything with text, you need this book. For the growing number of web designers that are not schooled in traditional graphic design, this book is a must. It will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your content and messaging systems. What’s more is that it contains useful reference info, making it eternally useful.

Communicating Design

Grade: A

Recommendation: Excellent coverage of an often ignored topic

Review: Planning and evangelizing your design starts long before you show anyone a Photoshop mockup. Some designers are lucky enough to work in a robust shop, and they may live only in the UI or design or javascript world, but an increasing number of us, are expected to be proficient or at least dangerous across multiple disciplines …

The Design of Everyday Things

Grade: A

Recommendation: Worth it because this guy is totally obsessed with doors.

Review: This is another zany fundamental book that sounds so super dry, I thought I’d use it to cure my early morning insomnia. Instead, it turned out to be one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a very long time, with many lessons that can be adopted by people who design websites and online applications.

The Elements of Style (50th Anniversary Edition)

Grade: A

Recommendation: Anyone who writes copy for a living knows this book

Review: Writing effective copy is another skill that’s often neglected by web professionals. Professionals in many other industries have learned the hard way that there is a right way and a wrong way to create textual content. This is the ultimate reference book for when you don’t know where the apostrophe goes.

Writers, INC

Grade: B

Recommendation: Reduced the grade by 1 due to potential embarrassment.

Review: This is essentially the same topic as the previous book. It helps you know how to use the grammatical mechanics of the English language. I like how this book is laid out in a more accessible manner, but you should know it’s one I kept from my high school AP English class!

From whence we came …

We are proud of our print-media heritage, and thankful for the structure it provided our young profession in the late 90’s. Established design theory provided a starting point from which this new medium could grow. Lacking in a formal set of standards, we borrowed heavily from the graphic design and typographic rule books. Cozy and familiar, print-based design skills were a natural friend in this time of discovery. Websites posed few challenges that the designer had not tackled before. They were still just as flat and unresponsive as a flat sheet of paper.

This ain’t your pappy’s net anymore

Years after its creation, the web is fundamentally different than its 1.0 progenitor. It provides more than the simple static information we were once content with. As people ask web to do more, they desire to interact with online systems in new ways, each more complex than the last. Designers and developers are being asked to solve questions which are only partially formed, and less than fully understood. Is this the right way to move a person through process X? Does a person want this service flavored this way or that? How will a customer want to go about doing something?

Even the general public, consumers of web content who have little professional interest, have grasped the driving idea behind “Web 2.0.″ The notion being that we have reached a new era of what the web is and does. We’ve made a quantum leap forward to something that is different and, hopefully, better for everyone. We have explored a few dead ends along the way, but overall things are greatly improved. Unfortunately we are still heavily couched upon the 1.0 foundations in a few key areas.

Necessity is the mother of invention
-Plato

With all this new interactivity, we must leave behind the notion that web content resembles a sheet of paper in any way that really matters. To truly make a substantial move forward, we need to re-frame our mind’s eye, so that it does not gaze upon a two dimensional object whose content is merely absorbed. Instead we will envision a morphic, four dimensional object that does something that someone needs.

It’s not a sheet of paper.

Being a visual person, I enjoy picturing a website as something other than what they are, an object that implies the shape or structure within. Perhaps it’s an iceberg or a submarine, use any visual metaphor you like. The crux of the matter is that what lies beneath the UI of any web system is complex, malleable and purposeful. To open your mind to truly new and creative solutions, you need to shed every ounce of two-dimensional convention.

• Remember that people don’t view your website, they interact with it.
• Traditional media may be encountered randomly, web content is often asked for.
• Printed media can inform, engage and entertain. Websites do this while performing a task.
• Please, please (please) stop using “the fold” to refer to the bottom of the viewable content.

Remember, spray the fire extinguisher at the base of the fire. By changing your entire frame of mind about what a website is and can be, you open yourself up to elegant and creative ways to fix problems that might not even have a traditional solution. The way you get to be a Google or Flickr or Youtube is by offering something truly new. Re-framing your mind’s concept of the web can be tough, but the rewards are great. Doing so will provide you, as a designer or developer, a much larger sandbox to play in.