CSS and HTML books!

novice J HTML and CSS really go hand in hand. Learning how to write well thought out HTML is important, for a whole number of reasons. That's the frame, the structural part of your document. But CSS is pretty important too. Learning how to use it efficiently is something that everyone should strive to do. When I first started learning, I would read and build, read and build. There are no right or wrong paths at this stage, just keep soaking it in and applying what you've learned.

novice J - Before you start on the HTML5 & CSS3 books from Treehouse, I'd suggest you start with a book that gives an overview and structure for HTML & CSS.

I recommend HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites it's the most gorgeously designed reference book I've ever seen.

Hi novice J of HTML5 Foundations before you dive into the CSS3 stuff. That would give you enough knowledge about the basics of HTML to understand the purpose of CSS.

It sounds as though you have covered a lot of the HTML basics through the online content so you should be fine tackling either of the books now. Part 1 of HTML5 Foundations will be a bit of a refresher for you. Chapter 5 onwards should touch on new content.

The projects within the two books are not related. I think that would be cool, but it was important to make sure that the reader still gets a great experience if they only have one of the books.

p.s. Super thanks for buying the books! :)

I've got both books, and rate them very highly indeed. However, I'd agree with James Barnett (above) - I got more from them, I believe, by having read a more general introduction to both HTML and CSS, such as Jon Duckett's book, which James mentions.

To answer your question, Ian - in my opinion, better to learn your way around HTML before embarking on CSS.

And - I would heartily recommend Bruce Lawson's and Remy Sharp's 'Introducing HTML5 (2nd Edition)' and Peter Gasston's 'The Book of CSS3' once you've got the basics down. Both titles assume a certain degree of prior knowledge, but not to the degree that someone who's completed and understood Treehouse's foundations courses won't understand them, with a bit of application.

John Locke

Hey. Thanks for the advice. I will practice a lot as I think that will be the better way of learning. Good to get some information from folks here.

Thanks.

James Barnett

Thanks James. I will order the Jon Duckett book right away.

By the way, what exactly is a CodePen account exactly? I saw you advised someone on here a while back to get it.

Thanks

novice J - Codepen is like Dribble for developers, it's code playground similar to jsfiddle. Treehouse uses codepen as their code playground as well

Here's a great intro to codepen

Here's a great step-by-step tutorial on using codepen

I was looking into ordering the Treehouse books as well. Do you guys recommend the book James Barnett put in the post above before ordering them? If so I'll jump into that first.

I have both of the books and they're amazing. I love up-to-date they are. Many books I've come across that were published back end of 2012 or early 2013 are actually outdated at the time of publish :S

Does anyone know if there are planned books for Javascript/Jquery and PHP/MySQL? I'd love to be able to cover over the main for area with literature from Treehouse.

I bought 4 books at the same time as the treehouse ones, all from "in easy steps" covering php & mysql, javascript, getting to No.1 on google and one on an overview of general web design. All very nice concise books with worked through examples.

Thanks Adam, I'm glad that you like the books :)

I know that there is an iOS6 book coming out soon but I'm not aware of any others at the moment. It would certainly be cool to have those topics covered though.

Thanks for all the input