7 Best Web Development Books for Beginners and Experienced developers in 2024

My favorite books to learn Web Development in depth

javinpaul
Javarevisited
8 min readDec 7, 2023

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Hello guys, if you want to learn web development and looking for best books you can read to learn Web development in depth then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared best web development courses as well as best books to learn React, Angular, and JavaScript and today, I am going to share best books you can read to learn Web development in depth.

Having a career in web development can be a fun and fabulous experience. There are a lot of online videos on YouTube or paid courses to teach you this field, but not all people are fan of videos and many of us like to learn from books.

So I’ve collected some of the best web development books to help you learn this field in a small amount of time and even maybe get a real job after completing them.

While I also advocate a hybrid approach where you can start with these free web development online courses first to learn the 20% stuff which are used 80% of time and then move to books, but it's totally up to you.

If you like to read books and learn from then starting with these best web development books is a great idea. They cover everything you need to become a successful web developer in 2024, including frontend and backend skills, tech, frameworks, and libraries.

By the way, if you prefer online courses then you can first start with a bootcamp style course like The Complete 2024 Web Development Bootcamp by Angela Yu on Udemy and then start reading book, this way you will learn better as you will have exposure to both active and passive learning.

7 Best Web Development Books for Beginners in 2024

Here are the best books you can read to learn web development and become a web developer in 2024. The list include books for both frontend and backend development as well for full-stack development.

You can start with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and then move to frameworks like React.js and Node.js to learn both frontend and backend development.

1. Full Stack Web Development For Beginners

Web development, as we said, contains the development of the front-end and the back-end, and if you can master both of them, you are a full-stack web developer, which is highly in demand among companies and on freelance websites.

If you are interested in learning full-stack web development, this book is a good choice.

This book is designed for beginners who will start from scratch. You will first learn the front-end technologies, HTML5 and CSS3, and Bootstrap to build the website’s look.

Then move to the JavaScript used to make the website interactive. Then move to learn the MySQL technology for storing the user’s data and the PHP language for making the back-end code.

2. Web Development and Design Foundations

Some people want to learn only the front-end of web development since it is easy and fast. Maybe they need to understand it better and deep dive in this area before jumping into the back-end section to be very professional at being a full-stack web developer.

For that reason, I recommend taking this book to start your journey as a beginner in front-end web development.

You will get an introduction to the internet, how it works, and the web. Then you will move on to learn the basics of the HTML5 language and create sample pages.

You will learn about CSS and how to use it for styling your web pages. You will also learn about the graphics and effects of web pages, web design, page layouts, forms, etc.

3. Learning Web Design

Another fantastic book for people looking to master front-end web development and web design. The cool thing is that when you complete the book, you will have an extensive experience in web design and building web pages that can work properly with the mobile screen and the experience to build excellent web pages.

Start this book by learning the HTML language and how to add texts, links, insert images, adding tables and forms. Then move to the CSS language to style your website, like adding colors, formatting texts, and simple animation effects.

Learn the JavaScript language and why it is so helpful in web development. You will also learn how to make the web page look good on all device screens and become familiar with Git.

4. React in Action by Mark Tielens Thomas

Most web developers use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to develop the front-end of the web. Still, there are many other programming languages for doing the same thing, and one of the popular ones is React JS.

It is a JavaScript library for developing the front-end and is FREE to use for building the user interface based on UI components.

You will start making the Hello World program as you learn this language from scratch. Then you will learn the ReactJS components and the renders.

Then you will learn the JSX expression, conditional statement, and components parameters. You will also learn about events, using the functions of this library, and many other things till you become intermediate in this language.

Mark is another trusted software developer with a great deal of React experience. If you want, you can also combine this book with the React.js: Getting Started course on Pluralsight, a great course by a great instructor Samer Buna.

5. Node.js Design Patterns

We’ve seen many books on developing the website’s front-end or web applications, but what about the back-end code? There are a lot of languages to develop the back-end, but the most interesting and used ones are the Node.js which is developed using the JavaScript language and works only for the back-end.

This book will help you create solid web applications by leveraging the power of this back-end language and how you can take full advantage of this open-source Node.js language.

You can also get experience with the mistakes that most people make to avoid them to make a professional web app ready to offer services to people.

6. FullStack React

Any wise developer will want to have a well-rounded understanding of web development. To acquire this, you should employ a few of the other disciplines utilized by seasoned professionals.

In this book, Mina broadens our understanding of multiple frameworks and ways to employ full-stack development. You will be a confident developer, after digesting the topics in this important text.

Mina is a respected author and developer, with extensive experience with many languages and frameworks. If you need a course to go along with this book, I highly recommend you check out The Complete React Web Developer Course on Udemy.

The author Andrew Mead is a full-stack developer and a great teacher who has in-depth knowledge of the subject he teaches. This course is truly awesome and hands-on and I highly recommend this to all programmer who wants to become professional web developer using React.

7. The Ng-book — A Complete Book on Angular

This book, also known as Ng-Book, has been often referred to as the bible of Angular. If you are looking for a simple yet detailed guide to the world of Angular, then this is the book for you.

The book covers the following topics in Angular (depending on the version you purchase). Plus, what is better than a book by the developers of the Framework themselves?

Chapter one covers Writing Your First Angular Application and chapter two covers Binding Data to Components and introduction to Typescript, Using Annotations and Types

Chapter three covers Angular 14 Concepts — How Angular Works with Components, Controllers, and Views Chapter four covers Using the Built-in Components and five Forms and Validations.

If you want, you can also combine this book with the Angular Complete Guide course by Maximilian on Udemy, which also covers Angular in depth and a solid resource for anyone looking for active learning.

That’s all about the best web development books for beginners in 2024. Learning from books is the oldest way to learn a new skill and our brain knows this.

It was not long ago when I totally relied on books and documentation to learn Java, web development and other tech skills but the advent of online courses changed that.

Though, books are still a great way to learn web development or any new tech skill provided you get the right resources.

And as you saw in this article, we’ve covered a tiny percentage of the books available for learning web development, but you can explore tons of them and try to practice more to build projects and gain more experience.

Other Free Programming and Web Development Courses

Thanks for reading this article. If you like these best web development books for beginners, then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.

P. S. — If you want to start with online courses or want to follow a hybrid model of learning web development then I suggest you just take a look at these best web development courses from Udemy, Coursera, and Pluralsight. The list contains the best courses to learn Web Development from scratch.

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javinpaul
Javarevisited

I am Java programmer, blogger, working on Java, J2EE, UNIX, FIX Protocol. I share Java tips on http://javarevisited.blogspot.com and http://java67.com