Reader reviews

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

A few useful pages, but mostly material I had seen better elsewhere.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. The chapters on graphics are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Two stars. The subject deserves a better treatment than this.

Finally, a book that treats javascript with the care it deserves.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Exactly the book I needed. Straight to the point and genuinely useful.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

A superb guide. The examples are small but complete.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.