Let’s accept it – people aiming to be web developers or those who already are, have it hard. There’s just too much to learn, and we understand that it can get overwhelming. But if you are passionate about it, who’s stopping you right? In fact, we are here to suggest to you the best web development books that can be an interesting read and may also make your leisure time 10x more productive to help your career goals.
Why is learning web development a privilege?
With technology advancing at jaw-dropping rates in the current world, almost everything is shifting online. The demand for web developers is only increasing, and almost every job sector is favoring people with some level of IT skills above those who don’t.
Web development is currently a very competitive field of work, yet, learning web development is a privilege if you consider the future that is to come. The corona pandemic has laid off a noticeable chunk of people from work, and unemployment peaked.
Thus, taking a step towards joining the web development community can be a privilege that’ll let you have the upper hand in whichever career you are aiming for.
You can even easily switch to freelancing or establish your own startup web development business; the possibilities are endless, and so are the career opportunities.
15 Best Web Development Books for Front-End, Back-End & Full-Stack Developers
There are 15 must-read books about web development that we want you to look at that’ll help you master your techniques.
In the next sections, we will be briefing on these books for you according to the kind of web developer you are. So carry on reading!
For Front-End Web Developers
1. Web Design With HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery series
- Author: Jon Duckett
- Amazon Rating: 4.70/5
- Price: $29.99
This two-book series is designed to cover the fundamentals of Html, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery — all of which are crucial knowledge for professional web developers.
Their main approach is learning through visualization, meaning that the book entails detailed illustrations, which are great for people who understand practical examples better than plain textbook descriptions.
Topics such as structures, texts, links, styling with CSS and SEO, Google analytics, and Html5 make for the perfect learning guide, which is easy-to-follow for beginners and front-end web developers alike.
2. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide 2020 edition
- Author: David Flanagan
- Amazon Rating: 4.70/5
- Price: $32.11
This book is a classic best-seller that has a brand new 2020 edition, making it relevant even today. It has been highly praised for its elaborate description and discussion tactics.
It is the Go-to JavaScript guide for anyone practicing web development and takes a bottom-up approach to make for a detailed learning experience. It starts with a simple yet in-depth explanation of javaScript itself and gradually moves on to more complex topics such as Node.Js and JavaScript tools.
Although the 706-page long book might seem like a stretch to complete reading, it has shrunk significantly and upgraded in regards to the knowledge that the book entails. Anyone who wishes to master their JavaScript skills should definitely try this book out at all costs!
3. Road to React 2020 Edition
- Author: Robin Wieruch
- Amazon Rating: 4.40/5
- Price: $29.99
We can definitely acknowledge that the German software and web engineer really has poured his heart and soul into writing this book. Road to react shows that it is a journey of growth for both its writer and readers.
It is a window of opportunity for anyone who wants to develop their web development skills through a clean and straightforward take upon React.Js, an open-source JavaScript library developed by Facebook used to create the front-end user interface for one-page apps that has the best virtual DOM features.
The book targets people who wish to understand why something works and how it works by making readers face a problem headfirst before revealing the solution to them. Moreover, it shows detailed steps necessary to build an application from scratch.
4. Effective TypeScript: 62 Specific ways to improve your TypeScript
- Author: Dan Vanderkam
- Amazon Rating: 4.60/5
- Price: $29.99
Having a good grasp on TypeScript development is a must for Front-end web developers in the current world, although it is not exactly beginner-friendly to weave through.
Effective TypeScript is a book that can make your life much easier with its no-nonsense teaching technique. The book literally says it in its name – it discusses 62 specific methods that can help you enhance your TypeScript knowledge to the next level.
This guide has it all, from getting to know TypeScript to write your codes and migrating to TypeScript. It is super easy to follow, and one can see the impact of this book on their handiwork almost instantly if they pay careful attention to the book’s teachings.
5. Full-stack Vue
- Author: Hassan Djirdeh
- Amazon Rating: 4.20/5
- Price: $39.00
Our list for the best front-end web development books is incomplete without a book about Vue.Js, and among its competitors, Full-stack Vue has proven itself worthy in our opinion to earn a place in our list.
Vue is another high-on-demand JavaScript Framework that is marketed more to those with intermediate and advanced level knowledge when it comes to JavaScript.
This book will surely let you master the framework with its practical examples and exercises and also provide you with enough knowledge to start building calendar apps, shopping carts, forms, and much more by the end of the book.
For Backend Web Developers
6. Learn python 3 the hard way 1st Edition
- Author: Zed Shaw
- Amazon Rating: 4.50/5
- Price: $33.36
Moving on to Back-end web development, you must have an inkling that Python is an essential language for the said task. Without Python, your knowledge in this area is very much incomplete.
The book’s title might be a bit deceiving because it indicates learning in a hard way, but we assume the author simply meant to be satirical with it since the book does quite the opposite.
It makes it easy for any reader to master the Python language through a set of 52 well-planned exercises that start from level zero, meaning that it is completely beginner-friendly. So go ahead and grab a copy ASAP!
7. The joy of PHP programming 3rd edition
- Author: Alan Forbes
- Amazon Rating: 4.10/5
- Price: $18.95
Even beginners with no knowledge of back-end web development can easily learn the PHP language with the help of this book from scratch.
The book goes into great detail that can help you obtain a strong foundation for applying your knowledge of PHP to more complex tasks and lets you solve problems along the way with its practical approach.
The exercises in this book are fun to go through and the author has absolutely nailed it when he mentions the book being anything but boring. He even touches a few aspects of MySQL in this that can further help the readers in their web development journey.
8. Beginning Node.js, Express & MongoDB Development
- Author: Greg Lim
- Amazon Rating: 4.20/5
- Price: $16.64
Node.Js is a JavaScript environment that is best known for having survived the competition for over a decade. It is best used for applications that are of single-threaded nature.
Learning the proper usage of Node.Js and Express and MongoDB can give you an upper hand among other back-end web developers, and this book can help you out with its vivid explanations.
Greg keeps it even more fun and useful by making use of a Bootstrap blog template that readers can also easily follow along with to implement the knowledge they learned from this book. This is a great teaching method since it allows the reader to make use of someone else’s code to their advantage in the future.
9. Java: The Complete Reference, Eleventh Editio
- Author: Herbert Schildt
- Amazon Rating: 4.60/5
- Price: $29.78
Herbert Schildt is hands down one of the best authors for programming-related books out there. His best-known works are on programming languages such as Java, C++, C#, and C.
Java: The complete reference is his take on documenting the Java language to his best abilities, and he surely succeeded in doing so because millions of copies of this book have been sold worldwide.
Herbert is best known for his practical and pragmatic teaching methods, and this book is just another example of that. It covers topics such as Data types, The I/O classes, Lambda expressions, The Collections Framework, & Networking.
Besides, Event handling, AWT, Swing, The Concurrent API, The Stream API, JavaBeans, Servlets, and so much more – this book is the whole package for beginners and advanced learners alike.
10. Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ 2nd Edition
- Author: Bjarne Stroustrup
- Amazon Rating: 4.50/5
- Price: $43.65
A book from the original implementer of the C++ language is just what you need if you wish to pursue a solid foundation for your web development journey.
C++ is a language that one can primarily go after before trying out other languages to understand them better later. This book can help you in your journey as it prepares you for programming in the real world.
It has all the necessary information on C++, and the author greatly emphasizes making sure that the readers understand the core concepts precisely. It is a great book for beginners to really take in the learning curve of the C++ language, and practical exercises and examples are just the cherries on top.
For Full-Stack Web Developers
11. ASP.NET Core 5 and Angular
- Author: Valerio De Sanctis
- Amazon Rating: 4.80/5
- Price: $31.15
Full-stack web developers need to have a good understanding of both front-end and back-end web development. ASP.NET and Angular are two essentials for deploying Windows and Linux platforms applications.
The book is more for advanced learners as it teaches utilizing complex APIs such as Entity Core and other such topics that fall within the ASP.NET Core 5 and Angular vicinity.
Furthermore, it teaches one to use ASP.NET and Angular together more effectively. Many professionals have commented on the book to be extremely well-written and detailed. It is a great book to master yet another framework and has some really useful tips for applying to real-time work scenarios.
12. Professional JavaScript
- Author: Hugo Di Francesco, Siyuan Gao, Vinicius Isola, Philip Kirkbride
- Amazon Rating: 4.70/5
- Price: $39.99
This book is ideal for individuals who might wish to switch from front-end web development to full-stack web development by doing self-study.
It is easy to understand for people with an intermediate level of programming and can help you obtain the skills necessary to tackle any real-world JavaScript problem with a modern approach.
It is the perfect book for someone who wants to use Node.Js for hosting full-stack applications. Moreover, the book covers a wide variety of topics that can make anyone keep coming back to it for the concise understanding of the core JavaScript concepts that it provides.
13. Full-Stack Web Development with Jakarta EE and Vue.js
- Author: Daniel Andres Pelaez Lopez
- Amazon Rating: 4.14/5
- Price: $35.95
Full-stack web development is all about mixing the front end and back end together. This book uses the same approach to teach its readers how to use Jakarta EE and Vue.Js together to get the best results.
Anyone wanting to move on from the old school Html is highly encouraged to give this book a chance as it is a great way to transition from the front-end to the full-stack development process with only a few years of experience up their sleeves.
It covers topics such as building enterprise applications from scratch as well as testing, securing and deploying them in the proper manner and more.
14. Adventures Of Full Stack Software Development
- Author: Mark J Caplin
- Amazon Rating: 4.13/5
- Price: $39.86
Anything you need to learn to become a master in full-stack software development can be found in this book in a neat and well-thought-out approach.
From front-end web applications to back-end databases, the topics covered in this book are priceless such as Microservices Architecture, Planning and Design, Message Queuing with RabbitMQ, Atomic transactions, SQL-Server isolation levels, and so much more.
It is a great book for providing a strong foundation, by the end of which, you will be successfully able to come up with your own full-stack projects!
15. Full Stack Serverless
- Author: Nader Dabit
- Amazon Rating: 4.40/5
- Price: $35.70
Last but not least, we have Full-stack serverless, which can be your debut into the world of full-stack web development with cloud computing and DevOps.
Serverless development APIs are the latest generation tools in the web development community. Cloud computing can help one build full-stack software that does not need traditional web servers, and this book is your guide to it.
So grab a copy and learn to integrate your services with your clients in real-world situations like no other!
To Conclude
That was all about the books we wanted to introduce to you to help you on your web development journey, but you must remember that practice makes perfect and reading is only your first step towards such perfection. So implement the things you earn from these books into your projects and excel at your career! Goodluck.
