Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML

Posted By: Mark Aplet No Comments July 30, 2010

I still remember the first time I watched some plain text in Notepad turn into words on a webpage. I was entranced. Witnessing the transformation of letters and characters into colors, shapes and patterns is the stuff of magic to me. So I began to teach myself HTML and CSS.

It wasn't until I found the Head First book HTML with CSS & XHTML, however, that my ability to turn written rules and data into a vibrant, visual experience really took off. I've been a Head First fan ever since.

The Head First concept was dreamed up by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, and developed by Mike Loukides at O'Reilly Media. As they say in the Intro, "We know what you're thinking." The Head First series of books makes a point of turning on the "other" part of your brain—the creative, or figurative part—to learn a potentially dry subject. All of these books are giant, hands-on tutorials, or "learners," rather than pedantic recitals of logic. They are full of such things as "hand-written" notes, puzzles and games, talking people (and talking code elements!) and above all, intelligent humor.

My copy of HTML with CSS & XHTML was written by Elisabeth and Eric Freeman and published in 2006. This foundational book begins with clear and entertaining instructions for setting up the website projects that will be developed during the course. Each chapter builds on one of just a few practice projects, and each of those projects focus on a carefully thought out, practical set of experiences. When you finish the program, you will have created complete, basic websites using techniques required of most every project. And you will have done it with modern, validatable code and an appreciation of the value of W3C standards.

In spite of the upcoming switch to HTML5 and CSS3, I believe this book will remain a valuable primer for years to come. If you are way past this level of expertise, though, don't despair. Check out one of their many, more advanced titles: PHP and MySQL, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, and many more.

An entire section of my bookshelf is purple, the hallmark, Head First color, and yours may be, too, once you experience this learning concept in action for yourself.

Christine Golden, CLGolden Web Design & Development
June, 2010

Tags: Book Review