In an effort to provide a permanent resource to the question “are there any books you recommend?”, I created the CSS-Tricks Bookshelf. It had slowly gone out of date, so now I’ve bought it back up to date with new version of books, some new favorites, and some old classics.
Updated Bookshelf
Chris Coyier
on
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Hey Chris,
Can I ask how you handle the bookshelf in wordpress (i.e. as a category, a series of pages, or–as you sometimes see with portfolios–a separate wordpress install)? I’ve been torn on the most elegant way to implement such a feature.
Thanks, as always, for sharing,
Steve
It’s just a page in WordPress. Simple as that.
Something seems to be wrong with the ‘f’ in ‘Bookshelf’ in the title, when you hover it. A bit of the ‘f’ stays black
I have the same bug too in my browser (Opera 10.10)
I have that too in Chrome
I am seeing that to in Firefox. Also, on the Homepage the title for the New Poll post goes out of its box.
Same, Safari/Mac
The title works fine in my browser.
I have a huge stack of books that still need to be read in my room; both web books and general books. I’d love to add some of the ones on your list to that stack, but I’d really like to finish the ones that are in that stack!
I added Thinking With Type to my Amazon wish list because I’ve been searching for a really nice typography book. Thanks! :)
Chris,
Thanks so much for providing this. Great list, I’ve ordered 2.
Thanks for what you contribute to the community. You’ve made me much better!
Tom
Nice update of the list with some great books!
if you intent to update the list from time to time (what i hope ;), it would be great to have a feed of it…
What a lovely idea, Chris! May I suggest CSS Mastery, by Andy Budd to add to your collection? I don’t think any web designer’s bookshelf should live without it :)
I’m reading that right now and will be giving away a copy soon I think =)
Most excellent idea! You rock.
I recently bought Handcrafted CSS, its actually amazing, so many cool ideas, and some so simple and can’t believe I’ve never used before.
I think Web Standards Creativity by Cameron Adams is a pretty awsome book as well, good teachings on great CSS and XHTML and compliancy.
I might take a look at some of the other books you have mentioned. Thanks
Required reading for a User Interface design and interactions class of mine awhile back. Not bad.
Running Windows XP Pro SP3:
In FF3.5.7, clicking on a book causes it to disappear. If you click and drag, you can see that it was placed a few hundred pixels up as well as to the right. The same goes for Opera 10.10, but the click and drag just makes the image flicker.
In Chrome 3 and Safari 4, the books only shift to the right, not up. This looks more like the intended functionality.
In all browsers mentioned except Opera 10.10, clicking a book does not direct you to the Amazon page, it just does nothing. Can’t check in IE at the moment, as I’m running IE6 on this box and this site isn’t IE6 friendly.
What is supposed to happen when you click on a book?
It was a bug. I fixed it. It’s just supposed to be a link to wherever the book is available for sale. The problem was they are absolutely positioned, but for links on this site, when :active, they are set to relative position for the button press effect. So they all the sudden lost their absolutely positioning and jumped off.
I still maintain that “Don’t Make Me Think!” is a must read for anybody aspiring to go into web design. It will save you from making some pretty embarrassing mistakes that may not be apparent at first (such as overloading your sidebar with every link in your site).
Also, @Chris, read “Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems” also by Steve Krug. While it’ll be pretty obvious, it is still riddled with little “Huh, never thought of that” ideas throughout the book.
I know I’m being completely anal here, but your shelves’ shadow should drop from the back of the shelf rather than from the front…
Christ I’m ashamed of myself even reading that back… still, I’m going to hit ‘Submit’. Fate and banality have decreed it must be so.
Darn good point, I’ll have to make some less corny shelves at some point.
Wow! Great list. I actually own 4 of these (including the one you shamelessly plug).
My own suggestion is not inherently a web design book but a logo book that was suggested by David Airey (master logosmith). The book is “Marks of Excellence” by Per Mollerup and goes into the history and making of many of European (and some American) logo’ s and marks. Great inpriational book and as many of us are both web designers and graphic designers I thought I would put in my 2ยข here. Keep up the good work Chris!
Kevin
Excellent list, Chris. A few on here that I’ve been meaning to get a copy of, and been too busy with other ones to get around to them.
One note: The link to “Don’t Make Me Think” is to the first edition. I think it should link to the updated version, no?
I only have the first edition personally, but I went ahead and updated the link to the second edition. I guess if you are going to buy a new book you might as well have the most recent one.
I recommend Transcending CSS. It’s a few years old but there’s a lot of good inspiration and design along with ways to lay coding out using different tags. I mainly use it just for inspiration and ideas. :]