JavaScript books to take your skills to the next level
Since originally writing 4 “best” Books for learning JavaScript targeting beginning to intermediate readers, I’ve wanted to follow up with a list of JavaScript books that I consider invaluable resources to front-end developers or programmers looking to take their JavaScript knowledge to a deeper level. The following books contain a wealth of wisdom gained from years of experience with JavaScript.
You’ll want to read on if you are looking for deep knowledge in one of these areas:
- The DOM and cross-browser compatible JavaScript
- Application architecture and design patterns
- Language patterns, best practices and use cases
- MV* patterns
- Modern / modular patterns (AMD, CommonJS and Require JS )
- JQuery development and design patterns
- Best practices when working on a team
- Automation, build processes and testing
- Best practices and understanding JavaScript idiosyncrasies
Browsers, DOM and JavaScript #
Professional JavaScript for web developers
by Nicholas Zakas
Zakas’ book is clear enough to be understood by beginners but it’s true value lies in the deep knowledge that Zakas has of not only JavaScript but of web browsers. Five deep chapters cover: the Browser Object Model, the Document Object Model, DOM Extensions, DOM 2 and 3 and client detection. Coming in at 900+ pages Professional JavaScript for Web Developers is an incredible and well-written resource.
Design Patterns #
JavaScript Patterns
by Stoyan Stefanov.
Stefanov’s book is invaluable reading for any JavaScript programmer looking to have deep knowledge of JavaScript application architecture. This is a book that is about architecture patterns: object creation patterns, code reuse patterns, design patterns (decorator pattern, factory pattern, singelton pattern, pub/sub ) and more. Stefanov presents code examples and use cases along with clear in-depth explanations. JavaScript Patterns provides programmers much needed tools that will help in quickly recognizing, understanding and solving problems when writing JavaScript applications.
Learning JavaScript Design Patterns
by [Addy Osmani](addyosmani.com “Addy Osmani’s blog”)
If you would like to learn how to write beautiful, structured and organized code, I believe this is the book for you.
— Addy Osmani
Learning JavaScript Design Patterns is extremely clearly written and covers classic and modern JavaScript design patterns. I think of it as a great companion of Stefanov’s book. What really sets it apart is in-depth discussion of:
- MV* application frameworks such as Backbone
- Modular patterns (AMD, CommonJS and RequireJS )
- JQuery design patterns and JQuery plugins
Best Practices & Maintainability #
Maintainable JavaScript
by Nicholas Zakas
Maintainable JavaScript is a relatively new entry in the book market but it distills a lot of wisdom into it’s relatively short length. This is not a how-to book or a book about language specifics. This is a book about best practices when working with a team writing JavaScript, about style guidelines, automation, testing and build systems.
JavaScript: The Good Parts
by Douglas Crockford
No list of JavaScript resources would be complete without mentioning the work of Douglas Crockford. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford focuses on imparting wisdom and best practices for working with JavaScript. This is a short but dense book that you will probably want to read more than once. If you want to write good JavaScript that’s efficient, scalable and maintainable code, this is the book to read.