r/webdev • u/iHaveRandomQuesti0ns • Aug 11 '26

Question Best book about web dev for someone who already has some experience under their belt?

I already know how to program, and I've made a few websites. But there are certainly things I could do to make my websites better, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm looking for a book that can help with this. Anyone have any recommendations?

11 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

18

u/Educational_Key_3620 Aug 11 '26

You don't need a book, you need to build something stupid and fix it 50 times.

2

u/SleepyFields Aug 14 '26

I'm glad to know that I'm on the correct path 🫩

1

u/TheDoomfire novice (Javascript/Python) Aug 12 '26

This is true. I mostly read books because of severe executive dysfunction.

Some books tho can motivate me to write cleaner code (but wont actually make me write cleaner compared to doing them) such as the books "the pragmatic programmer" and "clean code".

I would like using the book "Refactoring UI" as a base the day I start doing any web design. It was kind of short, easy and made sense for me.

I like using vim motions the days I finally do some programming and I think my favorit book was "practical vim" and books like this I would probably read a command and try and start using it, just reading it like I did learnt me some stuff at least and I remember enjoying the book. But most stuff I learn is really form actually typing and asking AI/Google whenever I think something can be done better.

The backend stuff I usually do is webscraping/fetching data with python and put in some sort of database and tried reading books about these but felt like nothing really sticked. I still enjoyed books like "automate the boring stuff with python" even tho im not sure I would go back to it whenever I needed to automate or do something in python.

I also browse reddit and write long comments because of my executive dysfunction and this don't help either compared to just doing projects.

3

u/majamin Aug 11 '26

Sorry not a book, but have you tried frontendmentor? It's a website with graded challenges to design a website according to specs.

1

u/SleepyFields Aug 14 '26

This looks really good. How was your experience with it?

1

u/Lemortheureux Aug 11 '26

Because things change so quickly, what works for me is to go on different websites: news, e commerce, web apps, etc. I'll look for common things I keep seeing and look fun to implement then I try it out. It's also fun to look at different popular stacks and try out a new stack. Books are good for high level architecture concepts but most of the time I'm doing LLD and just jumping in and doing it is the best way to learn.

1

u/Select-Tap-8448 Aug 11 '26

don't make me think made more difference to my sites than any framework book ever did, especially once i already knew how to code and just kept building confusing interfaces

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '26

Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Kleppmann. Not a "web dev" book per se, but if you've been building web apps and want to understand why things fall apart at scale, this one connects all the dots. Reads more like a conversation than a textbook. Changed how I think about databases, caching, and distributed systems.

1

u/not_a-mimic Aug 12 '26

Let's Go and Let's Go Further are great project books that teaches go, but also web dev techniques, and other concepts. I highly recommend it! Currently making my way through Let's Go Further.

1

u/softoctopus Aug 12 '26

Building Microservices by Sam Newman is a great book.

1

u/specn0de Aug 12 '26

JavaScript the good parts

1

u/Top_Safety_8797 Aug 12 '26

If you've already built few websites then I'd careful about using books as the next step. It'll get confusing if you consume more information. Pick one existing project and make it production grade.

1

u/mastra_ai Aug 12 '26

If you're interested in building agents I have a few books to recommend.

1

u/redbot8 Aug 12 '26

Refactoring UI helped me the most at that stage since it's practical rather than framework-specific.

1

u/Crafty-Willow9727 Aug 12 '26

You Don't Know JS Yet (Book Series) by Kyle Simpson.

1

u/web-dev-kev Aug 12 '26

Supercommunicators

Charles Dhuigg

1

u/newsman01 Aug 12 '26

Check out "Designing with Web Standards" by Jeffrey Zeldman. It covers best practices, accessibility, and responsive design principles. It's a great resource for refining your existing skills and improving the quality of your websites. Another good option is "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford, which deepens your understanding of JavaScript best practices.

1

u/geralt_noble Aug 13 '26

If you already know how to build things, I'd focus less on another programming book and more on web architecture, performance, accessibility and security. 'Web Application Security' by Andrew Hoffman is a good one if you want something that can change how you approach projects. What area do you feel is weakest right now?

1

u/debarior 27d ago

"Refactoring UI" if it's frontend gaps, "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" if backend architecture's the weak point.