Table of Contents
What is JavScript?
JavaScript is one of the leading and popularly used programming languages when it comes to front-end web development and is also a renowned scripting language.
If you are interested in front-end web development and planning to learn your first programming language after handling the basics of HTML and CSS, then JavaScript should be your pick.
Why Learn JavaScript?
The entire internet system is running on javascript, it is not just a frontend language, it is expanding its domain in the backend (server-side), mobile app development and, machine language also.
So, it has many possibilities and job opportunities for all skill level programmers.
Best books to learn JavaScript
While learning JavaScript, you need to prioritize all the modern JavaScript concepts by keeping the traditional ones in mind because even though this language is backward compatible but roots of this language are always necessary and remain.
Although there are plenty of courses and resources are available on the internet for learning JavaScript, using books to learn this language is always the best option to master JavaScript.
One should go with the books which use clear, precise, and easy-to-learn language, thoroughly explain and teaches the major JavaScript concepts, contains questions and some practice problems for the readers to solve on their own, and have the engaging content to hold the interest of the readers.
10 Best Books JavScript Books
Following are the 10 best books for learning JavaScript holding all the above-mentioned qualities:
1. Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming
“Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming” by Marijn Haverbeke is one of the best books for learning JavaScript as a beginner. This book is a work of pure art and the biggest thing that makes this book stand out from the other ones is its heavy usage and collection of extensive examples and practice exercises.
This book is well-written in an easy-going manner, giving the readers a chance to practice problems and write applications, and offering an introduction path to the programming world using JavaScript for beginners.
This book has a total of 21 chapters and is divided into three sections for a better understanding of the readers.
Section 1 majorly focuses on all the fundamental aspects of JavaScript and in general programming languages including Data Structures, Classes, Objects, Functions, Regular Expressions, Arrow Functions, and Asynchronous Programming.
Section 2 covers the history and early days of JavaScript, the Document Object Model (DOM), and browser wars.
Section 3 focuses a bit more on Node and goes a bit more in-depth on performance and speed.
2. You Don’t Know JS Yet
“You Don’t Know JS Yet: Get Started” by Kyle Simpson is one of the books of a six-part book series that covers the basic details and intricacies of JavaScript so that readers can effectively and deeply think about the clear and easy-to-understand manner.
Each of the books is small yet effective and packed with real-world value that allows the readers to think about the code practically.
You don’t know JS book comes in 6 volumes:
- 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
3. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Master the World’s Most-Used Programming Language
“JavaScript: The Definitive Guide” by David Flanagan is recognized and has been praised as a classic book for starting the journey of learning JavaScript.
This book acts as a complete reference for learning JavaScript and is perfect not just for beginners, but for intermediate and advanced coders as well.
This book would be the reader’s first pick because of its elegant, simple, and easy-to-understand explanations of complex topics.
This book majorly focuses on the following things:
- Introduction to JavaScript that coves the basic concepts and fundamentals of the language.
- Lexical Structure talks about the text of the JavaScript programs, identifiers, literals, reserved words, comments, optional semicolons, Unicode, and more.
- Types, Values, and Variables which goes over symbols, global objects, text, boolean values, numbers, immutable primitive values as well as type conversions, mutable object references, and variable declaration and assignment.
- Expressions and Operators focus on primary expressions, function definition expressions, operator overview, object creation expressions, object and array initializers, and many more.Statements include expression statements, conditions, loops, declarations, compound and empty statements, and more.
- Objects include creating objects, deleting properties, testing properties, enumerating properties, object methods, extended object literal syntax, and more…
4. JavaScript: The Good Parts
“JavaScript: The Good Parts” by Douglas Crockford is a book that has covered all the good and bad aspects of JavaScript. Using this book, readers will certainly learn plenty of things including ways to write the code efficiently and correctly, syntax, inheritance, arrays, functions, objects, and regular expressions.
5. Effective JavaScript: 68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript
“Effective JavaScript” by David Herman is one of the most effective books to understand JavaScript and build reliable, efficient, and precise programs.
This book will help you in building the foundation to create small and large applications, how to use prototype-based object-oriented programming, and the ways to choose the right programming style for your projects.
6. Learn JavaScript Visually
“Learn JavaScript Visually” by Ivelin Demirov is specifically designed and written for visual learners. Visuals make it easy for the readers to understand the code effectively and easily.
The illustrations of this book are in such a way that it helps the memory to trigger as the human brain tends to never forget the visual representations.
This book is beautifully designed to explain the fundamentals of JavaScript with the help of analogies and metaphors.
7. JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
“JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development” by Jon Duckett teaches the readers from complete scratch and has a visually enriching representation and format. It helps the reader in creating interactive web pages by using JavaScript and JQuery.
This book contains various sections including basic programming concepts, core elements, introduction to JavaScript and JQuery, and recreation of certain techniques such as content filters, sliders, etc.
8. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The New Tech-Assisted Approach that Requires Half the Effort
“A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript” by Mark Myers is a must-read book if you are really interested in JavaScript. The whole book is filled with basic concepts like strings, alerts, variables, and some complicated concepts like prototypes and constructors.
The entire book is written in a simple and easy-to-understand manner and each chapter in the book is followed by an exercise to solidify the learnings.
9. Beginning JavaScript
“Beginning JavaScript” by Jeremy McPeak and Paul Wilton is truly a wonder for those who are beginners and want to master JavaScript.
This book is a complete and massive guide on the JavaScript ecosystem and covers all the essential fundamentals of programming language.
The entire book is written in a beginner-friendly tone and divided into easy-to-follow lessons with easily understandable code snippets.
10 High-Performance Browser Networking
“High-Performance Browser Networking” by Ilya Grigorik is a perfect-fit book for both beginners and full-fledged developers and organizations.
This book is the ultimate guide for building successful and efficient JavaScript applications with highly optimized performance.
