The 5 Best Books to Learn JavaScript

Think about new learning languages. Are you more likely to succeed if you decided to learn English just because you always wanted to learn another language or because you are moving to England for three months for work? Real projects … real "doing" approaches are how people learn.

That's what you should be looking for in a book. Something that is going to help you learn JavaScript without learning JavaScript. I've taught hundreds of students to code, and the following are the five JavaScript books I recommend.

These a list of 5 best books to learn JavaScript:

1. JavaScript and JQuery

You will learn some JavaScript and jQuery from this because it modernizes the way coding is taught … it looks good. Furthermore, nothing is more miserable, intimidating, and discouraging for a new coder than picking up a 1,200-page book that has nothing but typewriter looking text inside it And, The presentation is not just "pretty," it’s also well organized. It layers well and builds up to the next concepts in a logical way. The transition to jQuery is natural and well done.

2. JavaScript

If you get into coding books you will start noticing this color scheme cover. O’Reilly puts out some great stuff (with the occasional miss) and this book is an excellent reference guide for people who are past the basics. Moreover, if you are looking for a tool that will remind you how closures work, prototyping, graphics, etc., this is an excellent resource.

3. Eloquent JavaScript

The book is an introduction to programming and uses JavaScript. It is very good for this reason. It is very common to find a developer who can write JavaScript but knows nothing about computer science. And, this will help create a good computer science foundation (its primary purpose) through learning JavaScript.

Including learn how to program, which will require tenacity and motivation beyond an exclusively project-based approach.

4. Learn JavaScript VISUALLY

This runs in a similar vein to Jon Duckett’s book above. It takes a very visual guide to learning the language. And, it is for absolute beginners and therefore isn’t terribly deep and it's also quite short, recommended for true newbies only.

5. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript

This is my favorite JavaScript learning book by far. Why? It is 100% project based. It takes a very, very basic approach, assuming nothing about your knowledge base, but still gets as far as constructor functions.

This makes it very approachable and sets frequent breakpoints if you need to take a rest. If you want to learn JavaScript you can also learn a lot from your classmates, who are working on the same problems you are. And at Designveloper, you'll find the career guidance you need, including resume workshops and job placement support.

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