As programmers, we’re always looking to improve. We want to write cleaner, more maintainable code, learn advanced language features for elegant and concise code, make our code easier for others to read and understand, and create more reusable and effective test cases.
If you’re looking to improve your skills, there are tons of resources available to help you out. From YouTube videos to seminars to answers on Stack Overflow, there’s no shortage of information out there. However, if you really want to delve deep into a particular subject, it’s hard to beat a good book. Specifically, books written for that specific field will provide a detailed explanation of all the important concepts, along with insights from experienced authors.
Check out these top JavaScript books to boost your skills! Whether you’re new to JavaScript or a seasoned pro, these books are comprehensive guides that can take you from beginner to expert. Plus, you can use them as a reference to brush up on concepts you may have forgotten or aren’t quite sure about in the future.
1. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
Author: David Flanagan
This has been a top-selling book for almost 25 years. The seventh edition is fully updated to cover the 2020 version of JavaScript (ES2020), including new chapters that cover classes, modules, iterators, generators, Promises, async/await, and metaprogramming. The book is meant for programmers interested in learning JavaScript and for web developers that want to improve their knowledge and understanding of the language.
Topics covered include: types, values, variables, expressions, operators, statements, objects, arrays, functions, classes, modules, iterators, generators, Promises, async/await, data structures, regular expressions, JSON, buffers, files, streams, and more.
2. Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming
Author: Marijn Haverbeke
Newly updated only a few years back, Eloquent JavaScript gives you a closer look at essential JavaScript language features to help you quickly start writing beautiful and effective code.
It has been updated to reflect a more recent state of JavaScript and web browsers and includes brand-new material on features like class notation, arrow functions, iterators, async functions, template strings, and block scope.
A great read for beginners and experts alike, the book is packed with plenty of extensive examples that let you have a practical understanding of the concepts, as well as exercises and full-chapter projects that give you hands-on experience with writing your own programs.
Here are some of the things you’ll learn:
- Essential elements of programming in general, like syntax, control flow, and data.
- How to organize and clarify your code with object-oriented and functional programming language techniques.
- How to write browser scripts and make basic web applications.
- How to use the DOM effectively to interact with webpages.
- How to build servers and utilities with Node.js.
3. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript
Author: Mark Myers
If you’re new to programming, this will be a great book. It explains basic coding concepts with simple English and no assumptions about what you already know. If you’re an intermediate JavaScript developer, you will also benefit from the book, as it comes with a variety of exercises that will give you extra practice and sharpen your skills in any weak areas.
Topics covered include:
- Fundamentals of JavaScript such as variables, math expressions, strings, if statements, arrays, loops, functions, etc.
- Advanced JavaScript concepts such as constructors, prototypes, and exception handling.
- DOM manipulation
- Event handling
- Brower control
- Form validation
4. Head First JavaScript Programming
Authors: Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson
Head First is series known for its highly visual and interactive approach to teaching. This is a great read if you’re just getting started with JavaScript and want a less formal approach to learning the language that doesn’t use only text and all kinds of technical jargon. You’ll be playing games, solving puzzles, studying riddles, and interacting with JavaScript in many unconventional ways. You’ll also create a lot of real code so that you can start creating your own web applications.
It covers important topics such as: the inner details of JavaScript, how JavaScript works with the browser, data types in JavaScript, arrays, the power of functions, how to use objects, closures, writing and testing applications, etc.
5. You Don’t Know JS
Author: Kyle Simpson
You Don’t Know JS is not a single book but is a collection of six well-written books for mastering JavaScript that can be read independently. Each book in the series gives a you thorough exploration of the core mechanisms of JavaScript to help you gain a deeper understanding of how the language works. The author takes a practical and thorough approach to explain the concepts in a way that will quickly bring you up to speed with the unique language features.
6. Effective JavaScript
Author: David Herman
Effective JavaScript is organized around 68 proven ways to write better JavaScript, demonstrated with concrete examples. With this book, you’ll learn how to work effectively with flexible and expressive features of the language, and how to avoid pitfalls. No matter how long you’ve been writing JavaScript, Effective JavaScript will strengthen your understanding of this powerful language, so that you can build more predictable, reliable, and maintainable programs. Topics covered include: better ways to use prototype-based object-oriented programming, subtleties, and solutions for working with arrays and dictionary objects, precise and practical explanations of JavaScript functions and variable scoping semantics, etc.
7. JavaScript: The Good Parts
Author: Douglas Crockford
Douglas Crockford is a highly renowned JavaScript expert in the development community, and in this book, he highlights the beautiful parts of the language that lets you create effective code. JavaScript was developed and released in a hurry before it could be refined, and this led to a lot of unrefined and error-prone features in the language. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford filters out the language blunders to offer you a detailed look at the genuinely elegant parts of the language in areas like syntax, objects, functions, inheritance, arrays, regular expressions, and methods.
8. JavaScript and jQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
Author: Jon Duckett
This book delivers a fully illustrated guide to making your websites more interactive and your interfaces more interesting and intuitive. You’ll explore basic programming language concepts that assume no prior knowledge of programming, beyond an ability to create a web page using HTML & CSS.
There is little reason to learn jQuery in 2022, but the book also teaches you how to use the library to simplify the process of writing scripts, after you’ve gained a solid understanding of JavaScript.
9. Professional JavaScript for Web Developers
Author: Matt Frisbie
Professional JavaScript for Web Developers is a book written to help intermediate and advanced programmers improve the quality of their code. It looks into modern language features that will help you write cleaner code and become a more polished JavaScript developer. It explains fundamental web development concepts such as the document object model (DOM), the browser object model (BOM), events, forms, JSON, error handling, and web animation. It also covers advanced browser APIs such as geolocation, web workers, service workers and fetch. There are hundreds of working code examples that you can practice with to get familiar with the new concepts.
10. Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja
Authors: John Resig, Bear Bibeault, Josip Maras
In this book, you’ll master key JavaScript concepts such as functions, closures, objects, prototypes, and promises, using practical examples that clearly illustrate each concept and technique. You’ll discover best practice techniques like testing and cross-browser development, and look into regular expressions and asynchronous programming.
Bonus: JavaScript for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming
Author: Nick Morgan
JavaScript for Kids will be a gentle introduction to programming for aspiring developers. It teaches programming essentials through patient, step-by-step examples with lighthearted illustrations. The book has three parts; you’ll start with the basics like strings, conditional statements, and loops in part 1, then you’ll move on to more advanced topics like object-oriented programming, timers, and browser events in part 2. In part 3, you’ll learn how to use the HTML5 canvas to create drawings and animate them with JavaScript. After each part, you’ll write a cool game to gain a practical understanding of the lessons covered.
Conclusion
You can always improve your skills, no matter how long you’ve been programming. Whether you’re just getting started with JavaScript or you’re a seasoned expert, the knowledge from these books will refresh your memory on various language features, and help you write cleaner and more polished code.
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