I don’t normally do book reviews, but Jon Duckett’s HTML & CSS book was brought to my attention via twitter and it looked interesting, so I thought I’d give it a read.
If you’re the type that was discouraged from learning basic web programming because of the manual-like books, then I would definitely recommend this book. The information is presented in very visual ways and while there are a few pages here and there that have nothing but code on them (for full examples), almost every page has an image of some sort, whether as explanation or for decorative purposes.
While there are a couple of concepts I wish were explained in a little more detail with visuals (such as CSS selectors), I appreciate that Duckett will discuss deprecated tags and elements, which are still commonly seen, and point out which browsers do not support certain properties.
He also provides lists of practical websites or tools to use including commercial and open source alternatives. Code and extras can be found on the website, which can be useful even for those who never crack open the physical book.
The Conclusion
It’s what it purports to be. So, I highly recommend it for beginners and maybe even those that want an easy to digest review (it’s very easy to skip sections you feel you already know).