At the start of every year, you often make resolutions that you will do something productive this year, so you decide to learn new things or sharpen your already learned skill sets. If Web Development comes in the above-given criteria, then you are at the right place.
You may or may not have already discovered that JavaScript is the most widely used language in the world of Web Development. Before jumping into the core, let’s talk more about the JavaScript language. JavaScript is well-known for scripting language and its use in front-end web development. But nowadays, this language manages both sides of web development, namely, Client-side and Server-side.
Here, we’re listing the top 10 best books for JavaScript, which will help you become a better JavaScript developer. Let’s get started:
1. You Don’t Know JS – Kyle Simpson
“You Don’t Know JS” is not a single book; it is a series of 6 books that are well-written and well-organized for learning JavaScript. This series of books helps you to increase your JavaScript knowledge and cover a deep understanding of concepts. It requires a basic knowledge of the JavaScript language, so We recommend you to begin with these if you have basic knowledge of programming languages like C, C++, or Java.
These six books are listed below:
- You Don’t Know JS: Up and Going
- You Don’t Know JS: Types and Grammar
- You Don’t Know JS: ES6 and Beyond
- You Don’t Know JS: Async and Performance
- You Don’t Know JS: this and Object Prototypes
- You Don’t Know JS: Scope and Closures
There are two editions of this series of books, and you can find them here:
2. Effective JavaScript: 68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript – David Herman
If you are looking for one thing that can help you write better, more reliable, and maintainable programs, then this book is for you. It is not limited here. You will get to know more concepts like:
- Learn JavaScript functions and variable semantics practically.
- How to use prototype-based object-oriented programming
- And many more
This book will help you build a foundation for small and large applications. It will also cover all the right parts and pitfalls of the language. After finishing this, you’ll emerge as a good JavaScript developer, and you’ll have strong knowledge of JavaScript.
Buy Effective JavaScript: 68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript by David Herman
3. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript – Mark Myers
Suppose you are new to the programming language and have no prior knowledge of the JavaScript language. In that case, this book is for you. It is also for intermediate JavaScript developers who want to strengthen their understanding of the language. After completing each chapter, you can hang out with interactive exercises on the author’s website to retain your knowledge. This book teaches you every little thing in layman’s syntax. It covers short chapters that are easy to digest.
This book covers:
- Fundamentals of JavaScript
- Advanced concepts like JavaScript constructors and prototypes
- A user-friendly introduction to the subject
- Illustrations and diagrams for understanding the concepts
4. Eloquent JavaScript – Marijn Haverbeke
This book is pure art for beginner and intermediate JavaScript developers—concepts like control structure, function, and data structure is in this book. When you dive deeper into it, you will also learn more concepts such as error handling and bug fixing, modularity, and asynchronous programming. It will also teach you the syntax, control, data, basic web applications, and how to use DOM effectively.
After learning the topics, you can test your knowledge through the exercises given in it. After finishing this book thoroughly, you’ll have the ability to write clean, beautiful, and practical code.
5. JavaScript: The Good Parts – Douglas Crockford
As the name suggests, this book covers the good parts of the JavaScript language. It will teach you the right aspects of the JavaScript language and avoid using the wrong parts. With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you’ll learn many things, such as how to write valid code, a subset of JavaScript that is more reliable, readable, and maintainable.
What you’ll learn:
- Syntax
- Objects
- Functions
- Inheritance
- Arrays
- Regular expressions
- Methods
- Style
- Beautiful features
To understand this book better, you shall have a basic understanding of JavaScript concepts.
6. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide – David Flanagan
Are you looking for a reference book to learn JavaScript? If yes, then this is the book for you because it teaches you to dive from the root of JavaScript to different parts of the language. These parts are:
- Building powerful web applications
- An in-depth exploration of JS and web platforms API features
- And many more
The latest is the seventh edition. Each new version comes with more features and an updated version of the previous edition. The sixth edition of this book included HTML5, ECMAScript concepts, etc. Suppose you are interested in web application development and want to know about JavaScript beyond the basics. In that case, you can go for it.
Note: if you want to become a good front-end developer, here’s for you JavaScript Foundation – A self-Paced course that will help you start your journey of programming from scratch.
7. JavaScript and jQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development:
This book empowers you to create more interactive and usable web pages with JavaScript and jQuery. It teaches you from scratch and has a visually rich format. You can find more information about this book in this article: Best Books to Learn Front-End Web Development
Now, it is time that you can choose any of them according to your requirements and start with the first thing that comes into your new year’s resolutions. The best thing about books is that they will provide the most information about the subject. And learning from books is the best way to learn quickly.
Buy JavaScript and jQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
8. Head First Javascript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide
This book is designed with the latest research in learning theory and cognitive science in order to provide readers with a great multi-sensory learning experience. In this book, you will be guided about numerous things including the fundamentals of JavaScript to advanced topics in the form of interesting games and puzzles so that the students do not get bored while solving difficult questions. Some of the major topics covered in this book are arrays, objects, prototypes, and writing and testing applications. If someone wants to learn about heavy-text formats then they must definitely go for this book.
Buy Head First Javascript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide
9. Professional JavaScript for Web Developers
This book provides a higher level of introduction to developers along with many useful and advanced features. It covers various topics including the browser object model. object-oriented programming, function expression, and much more. The book is divided into three parts- beginners, web developers, and experienced object-oriented programming developers who are going to learn JavaScript.
With this book, you will learn:
- Detecting the client and its capabilities
- JSON data format as an alternative to XML
- Document Object Model (DOM) objects available in DOM Level 1
- Built-in reference types such as object and array
- Offline Detection and storing data on the client machine
10. Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja
This book is considered one of the best choices for JavaScript professionals and is written by John Resig, Bear Bibeault, and Josip Maras. This book has everything an aspiring web developer must learn. This book includes practical examples to work on concepts and techniques taught. Some of the core features like closures, objects, promises, functions, and prototypes. It consists of 4 major parts:
- Warming Up
- Understanding Functions
- Digging Into Objects and Fortifying Your Code
- Browser Reconnaissance
Wrapping Up
Reading is fun, but when you have your favorite subject to read it’s even funnier. JavaScript has become one of the best programming languages and also the most demanded one. Hence, this article has covered the 10 Best JavaScript Books for Beginners to help you with more advanced concepts and their implementation. Do have a look at each and choose one according to your interests.
FAQs – Best JavaScript Books
Q1: Can I learn JavaScript in 3 months?
You can learn JavaScript in 3 months if you have prior knowledge of it, and if not can gain it with regular learning and practicing by solving coding questions on JavaScript. You need to sharpen your basic concept and then move to advanced ones.
Q2: How to learn professional JavaScript?
To become a professional JavaScript, you can follow the below-mentioned steps:
- Enroll in JavaScript boot camps
- Learn from JavaScript tutorials and courses
- Work on projects
- Join coding communities
- Apply for internships
Q3: What is the salary of a JavaScript developer?
The salary of a JavaScript developer ranges from 5 LPA to 14 LPA which depends on the skills, expertise, and experience one has in the programming language.
