Introduction
If you are looking to enhance your programming skills but haven't been able to find some reliable sources without having to dig deep through the web or even documentation, then look no further. The books I am about to recommend have helped me in my career as a programmer, and I believe I still go back to the same techniques I've learned from these books. The best part about reading these books is that not only may you discover the information you didn't know about, but you will also thank yourself in the future for pushing yourself to learn more. I'll summarize each book to give you an idea if it's a good book for you or not.
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Books
- HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
- JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
- Think Python: Think Like A Computer Scientist
- Conclusion
Books
Here is the list of books if you're wondering and don't want to read the entire article.
- HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
- JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
- Think Python: Think Like A Computer Scientist
The list is not a rating list or an order list of how we should read these books. You can read them as you choose if you feel they benefit you.
HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
This book is an excellent opener for any new to programming, a beginner, or anyone interested in learning about building websites. Programming isn't simply databases and algorithms anymore. We've come pretty far into the internet, where we now have Graphic User Interfaces, where a user can use a mouse to navigate through a computer, unlike back when it was simply just a terminal and a screen with data. This book uses real-world examples to show how a web page is built from the ground up. One such as how a news company went from paper to digital to adapt to the new technology, making it a lot more beneficial for the company allowing them to gain a unique audience and have easy access to their news source. After learning some of the fundamentals of how a website's structure is built from the ground up, you will dive into CSS, which is the critical source of styling our web pages. Seeing similar concepts from the HTML in the CSS language can give you an idea of how some things are slightly different but nothing that you can't overcome with a bit of dedication. It also uses excellent analogies to give the regular non-tech savvy person a better understanding of concepts. Learning modern tech terminology to be able to explain your code correctly to others is also very crucial. It gives us an advantage in asking properly worded questions, issues, code reviews, or documentation. They are making it very beginner friendly when it comes to overwhelming terms.
What you'll learn:
- HTML language to build web pages
- CSS language to style web pages
- Elements, DOM, Code Editors
- Very basic web page concepts
Difficulty: 1/5
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
Javascript has become one of the most popular programming languages and the most used language on the internet for making web pages interactive. If you want to sharpen your JavaScript skills and learn more about what's happening under the hood, this book is for you. It lectures about the most fundamental concepts of the JavaScript programming language. In a beginner-friendly road-map from what a lexical environment is, variables, pointers, references, loops, and so much more, even for those experienced developers who want to get better at JavaScript programming. If you are thinking about how exactly JavaScript frameworks work, this is one of those books you will not regret, as many of the concepts in this book are seen everywhere in software, even now. After reading this book, you can create your very own JavaScript framework or even have more appreciation for how open-source software impacts the software world.
What you'll learn:
- JavaScript's environment
- How data is stored
- Deep understanding of variables, pointers, references
- Data Structures such as Arrays and Objects
- How to make web pages interactive and more engaging
- How Javascript's used on the web
Difficulty: 3/5
Think Python: Think Like A Computer Scientist
This book is one of those I wish I had come accross earlier in my web career. I love this book so much because it doesn't only focus on the Python programming language. Its primary focus is to help you think like a Computer Scientist, all while learning Python, an Object Oriented programming language. Many programming languages are Object Oriented. So what does that mean exactly? We can use many of the concepts taught in this book with many other languages, and a majority of the time, the only difference is the syntax, environment, and keywords. Meaning you can still use similar data structures in multiple programming languages. This book aims to help you overcome the fear of learning new technologies by trying to master them instead of thinking like a computer scientist.
What you'll learn:
- Basic programming concepts
- Functions, statements, debugging
- Conditionals & Recursions
- Iterations, Strings, Lists
- Arrays, Dictionaries, Objects
- Python programming language
Difficulty: 3/5
Conclusion
By the end of this article, I am confident that at least one of these books caught your eye. It is imperative to understand how your code fully works; not only does it help you become a better developer, and it can also help you use the tools you are working with more efficiently.
These articles are primarily intended for personal use in becoming a better programmer and writer and growing my programming skills. Please drop any feedback or corrections you believe should be made to help me and others. Thank you for your time and for sticking this far!
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