I picked up “CSS, DHTML, and Ajax, (Visual QuickStart Guide)” From Peachpit Press. The book was a quick read and it truly acts as a quick start guide for those wanting to get an idea how Ajax works. The coverage of CSS was substantial compared to DHTML and AJAX. The examples were well written but there are some differences between the books code vs the download code.

Overall I could recommend the book if you are curious about AJAX and are in need of a brief examples to get the basics down. Serious developers can probably pass on this one. There are plent of visual examples which help solidify use of CSS for styling.
The Ajax and DHTML chapters examples are a little thin, but adequate for the examples provided. This is a book for a beginning to novice developer, not designers.

Amazon offers this book with its companion by the same publiher, JavaScript and Ajax for the Web, Sixth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) as a “buy together” combo. This may get you a little more indepth with Ajax and its inner workings. Click the book covers to learn more about their content.

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Sitepoint has a new web design book: The Art and Science of CSS, Authors: Jonathan Snook, Steve Smith, Jina Bolton, Cameron Adams, and David Johnson. Sitepoint is offering a free chapter for review before purchase.

The free chapter is an in depth description of how to style forms. I saw several of these tutorials over the last few months, and this one offered nothing new if one is already familiar with the legend and fieldset tags. The author did illustrate a variety of forms one may encounter or need to develop. Based on the one free chapter this book could be a fairly useful addition to the library. The chapter descriptions on use of images and rounded corner methods look promissing.

You can buy the book at sitepoint.com and download the free chapter to judge for yourself. You will have to submit your email address to get the free chapter, but you can signup for sitepoints newsletters at the same time.
You can also order it here by clicking the book cover above (at a slight savings).

For years I have used a very thick HTML and XHTML reference book from Sams. But today I picked up Web Designer’s Reference By Craig Grannell (Published by: FriendsofEd). Flipping through it I saw some tidbits of code I had forgotten. This is one of the easiest reference books to read as well. It was neatly organized and explained things in a very simple way. The book is much more likely to be used than a w3c style reference bible. But more than a reference it covers modern coding techniques, web standards, CSS, and even a resonable introduction to typography. I would consider this a great read for those moving away from web design tools to hand coding.

I also personally like Craig Grannell. I first became exposed to his work at Practical Web Design magazine (now incorporated with .Net magazine). He is an excellent writer and produces some remarkable web designs. He was quite friendly on the forums and had some great ideas to share. You can view his work at www.snubcommunications.com

For those of you who visit this site occaissionally you know I am a big fan of Andy Clarke’s book Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design. Now Andy has a chapter in a new book Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting. Andy is joined by many other web design guru’s such as Andy Budd, Ian Lloyd, Cameron Adams, Jeff Croft, Mark Boulton, Simon Collison, Derek Featherstone, and many others. The book is colorful and chock full of examples to learn from. I spent an afternoon lost in the code and examples, it will take many more readings to take it all in. Many examples reaffirm techniques and best practices barely touched on by websites and blogs. The structure of this book is a good one if you want to practice individual techniques or find that special trick for your current project.

Editorial Review: Web Standards Creativity is packed with fresh, innovative design ideas. The topics range from essential CSS typography and grid design, effective styling for CMS-driven sites, and astonishing PNG transparency techniques, to DOM scripting magic for creating layouts that change depending on browser resolution and user preference, and better print layouts for web pages. We’re sure you will find something here to inspire you!

This is a must read and must own if you are seeking to build better websites with a distinct coding style and creative edge. If you only buy one book this year, buy this one. Click on the cover above and read the reviews, they are overwhelmingly positive.

Additional Note: The book is published by “friends of ed”. The publisher creates a wide array of books with multiple authors who bring their unique perspectives to the subject matter. There is no better way to learn than to get advice from a cross section of experts in thier field. I can not say enough good things about this publisher and the books they bring to the market.

We are finally back online after a server migration without notice by our hosting provider. All seems to be in working order again.

Seth Godin, a fabulous Marketer thought leader and writer has a new book out, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). In it he describes how all businesses, projects, or even hobbies start off with a burst of energy but will eventually hit a lull or wall where the participants must decide whether to push forward or call it quits.

He addresses the entrepreneurial minds ability to know when to quit and to find the next project. The book also illustrates how pushing through the dip has made some small companies, giants.

Where does this fit in with web design? Your clients may be experiencing a dip and are looking to the internet to create new sales channels, attract new customers, or merely liven up their old tired site. Your business may have hit a plateau where you have to decide whether to get more aggressive in attracting customers, or take it easy and wait for a big opportunity, or even throw in the proverbial towel. By learning about business cycles we can be better business people and offer added value to our clients.

Seth has a blog for “The Dip” where you can learn more…