JavaScript is currently one of the most popular programming languages for web development. It is an interpreted language and is used in both, front-end and back-end development.
If you want to learn JavaScript reading a JavaScript book is a great way to do so. We recommend that as one of the best ways to learn JavaScript.
And if you are into podcasts, check out what are the best JavaScript podcasts out there right now.
Here is the list of the best JavaScript books for beginners that we recommend:
1. You Don’t Know JS Yet: Get Started
Author: Kyle Simpson
Level: Advanced
This is a great book for those who would like to get into more advanced JavaScript. It is probably not the perfect book if you are an absolute beginner, but it might be a good one for you if you have an intermediate level of JavaScript and want to really take it to the next level.
The book won’t take things for granted as some do and explain things in a concise manner that makes it easy to read and understand.
2. Eloquent JavaScript
Author: Marijn Haverbeke
Level: Advanced
A complete book that explains the foundational components of JavaScript language for modern web developers.
Eloquent JavaScript (A Modern Introduction to Programming) is oriented to developers with an intermediate level of JavaScript (not for beginners). It will make you see JavaScript with other eyes so you can really understand what’s going on under the hood.
4. Professional JavaScript for Web Developers
Author: Nicholas.C.Zaras
Level: Intermediate & Expert
A top-quality JavaScript book that will teach you JavaScript in depth. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of JavaScript, this book is for you.
It’s not a book for pure beginners as they’ll be required to have a basic understanding of programming. It is quite technical and contains long explanations for everything in its about 800 pages.
It covers JavaScript basis before moving into more advanced techniques such as Object-Oriented programming, web services, remote scripting, XML, etc.
This JavaScript book will make sure you become a more clean, efficient, and sophisticated programmer in JavaScript.
The book might be a bit outdated but the fundamentals it tackles will still be valid for today’s developers. It treats concepts such as regular expressions, advanced DOM techniques, client-server integration via AJAX, object-oriented programming, etc.
5. JavaScript: Definitive Guide
Author: David Flanagan
Level: Beginners & Advanced
With the last edition of the book, David Flanagan has made an important upgrade to include changes regarding modern JavaScript features and syntax up to ES2020. And the best part, the book is even thinner than its previous versions! Old and outdated stuff has been completely removed.
This is a great JavaScript book for both, beginners and advanced JavaScript developers. Senior developers will for sure find something new to learn, but the book is written in a way that makes it easy for beginners to start with.
The book has been a best seller for the past 25 years so it’s definitely worth reading. It starts explaining JavaScript from scratch to move into the web platform and Node.js.
By the way, if you are into Node, you should check out the best Node.js Conferences in 2022.
6. Effective JavaScript
Author: David Herman
Level: Intermediate – Advaned
In this book, David Herman helps us understand the different ways we have of using JavaScript and how to choose the best one for our projects.
The book contains 68 lessons that not only teach us things but also make us see the different approaches and ways to do things. It’s a book that questions us and makes us think why certain ways are considered best practices.
It’s not a book for new learners of JavaScript, but more for advanced to medium level developers that are already familiar with JavaScript basis.
7. Speaking JavaScript
Author: Axel Rauschmayer
Level: Intermediate & Expert
Speaking JavaScript: An In-Depth Guide for Programmers is a book suitable for beginners with some understanding of programming and Object-Oriented programming to experts. It’s an excellent book that touches many different topics but that won’t get too much in-depth with long explanations.
It’s kind of a minimalist approach where examples and explanations are kept to their bare minimum. Just enough to make the point.
Related article: Top Web Design Books
Unlike other books, Speaking JavaScript won’t cover browser development (DOM, jQuery…) or Node.js. It is all about JavaScript language core fundamentals.
8. JavaScript Grammar
Author: Greg Sidelnikov
Level: Beginner – Intermediate – Expert
This is a good JavaScript book for all kinds of programmers. From beginners to experts.
There are very few assumptions during the book, making sure the reader won’t get lost in the explanations to the point of explaining even small things.
The book is easy to read, comes with examples, digestible diagrams, and uses a friendly tone, straightforward and to the point. The author makes himself available through social media, email, etc., and is quite active on Twitter.
The book covers topics such as prototyping, event loops, and Object-Oriented Programming as well as modern JavaScript.
9. Javascript The good parts
Author: Douglas Crockford
Level: Intermediate – Expert
Douglas, who serves in the ECMAScript committee, has created a JavaScript book oriented to intermediate to expert JavaScript developers who want to move to the next level.
It’s a book that is quite opinionated and dense despite not being a long book (about 100 pages). It admits the bad parts of JavaScript and the good ones and explains how to avoid the bad ones.
It might be a bit outdated regarding the modern JavaScript syntax.
10 Secrets of a JavaScript ninja
Author: John Resig
Level: Intermediate – Expert
John writes this amazing JavaScript book for intermediate to expert developers aiming to improve your developer skills to the “ninja” level and complete your knowledge in modern JavaScript.
It covers things such as closures, context, arrow functions, regular expressions, timers, generators, promises, or writing modular code. All of it with ES6 syntax in mind.
It’s an easy-to-read book that comes with plenty of examples and does a great job at explaining the most unique parts of JavaScript. It doesn’t lose time on the very basics of the language but it touches its fundamentals so you can have a deeper knowledge of how JavaScript works.
