The Bookstore

Come right in! Here you'll find my recommendations and short reviews of books for webmasters and webrookies: whether you're an experienced graphics designer or just starting to learn about HTML, there's something of interest for everyone. Roam the shelves, or sink into an easy chair to read. This bookstore is a real bookstore -well my favorite type of bookstore-, where you can spend hours leafing through books, attend author interviews, study and take notes, and no one will disturb you. Come to to be entertained, come back to learn. Read and download sample chapters and you can learn a lot - without ever buying a book.

I've tried hard to find the most useful books in each category, both for beginners and for those already experienced in the subject; I've written short reviews and asked others to do the same. And for each book listed, I've done my best to find relevant 'background' material: companion websites, sample chapters, author interviews, author's articles and personal web sites, on-line forums. Downloadable source code to get cracking on your new project immediately. You'll find the links in the background sidebars.

Oh yes, you can of course also buy the books listed from here: this subsite of HomeSite Help is run in association with Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. If you buy a book from here, you'll help me cover the cost of running HomeSite Help: while subsidized as a free service, the hosting isn't free (only my time is free). But you don't have to buy a book to learn something useful here or just enjoy yourself. (But you know, sometimes buying a book really is a good idea. After all, you can't easily dog-ear a web page and coffee stains are even harder to leave behind. ;-) )

On most pages you'll also see boxes labeled 'Amazon recommends'; this is dynamic content directly from Amazon.com that I've set up to fit in with the page's content. Usually you can reload the page to see a different selection: you'll find new books before I even know about them! :^) If that isn't enough, there are forms you can use to search the Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk catalogs. If you find (or already own) something you think I should have listed, let me know what you missed so I can add it! (If you write a short review, I'll add that too, with a link to your website, if you wish.)

Since the web and web technology have given rise to such a smorgasbrod of acronyms and abreviations, I've done my best to mark up all of them (except in book titles). If you've forgotten for a moment what RDF means, for example, you can now easily find out with any modern browser that supports the title attribute; in most graphical browsers, all you need to do is hover your mouse over the acronym and you'll see its explanation.

Obviously, there are tons of books about HTML. To make it a little digestable, I've divided this section into three separate bookshelves: HTML 4 about 'classic' HTML, with HTML 4.01 the current standard, XHTML the new W3C standard which is an implementation of HTML 4.01 as an XML language, and Dynamic HTML, the combination of (X)HTML, CSS, the Document Object Model and client-side scripting.
Go to HTML.

When I started this page a few years ago and looked around Amazon for books about XML nearly all I could find was books with rather scathing customer comments. I finally picked two, based on the reader comments. Interestingly, one of those is now in its fourth edition and still getting lots of positive reviews, so it's still here.

By now, there is a flood of books. In the last few years, there have been a lot of developments, so older books will not treat the newer technologies (not necessarily a problem, if the book does treat the subject you're interested in).
Go to XML.

Style Sheets are used to determine the presentation of the data encoded in an HTML or XML document. This section is dedicated to different style sheet technologies; for now, you'll find Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and XSL.
Go to Style Sheets.

Web Design is a large subject. In this section of The Bookstore I'm concentrating on the process and methods of designing a website rather than particular languages or software packages. You'll find separate bookshelves about Design in general (books to inspire, and books about general principles of design), Getting Started, Advanced Subjects. Interface Design, Usability and Accessibility.
Go to Web Design.

In this section about Site Building Software you'll find only two bookshelves for now: books about HomeSite (which treat ColdFusion Studio as well, by the way), and one for ColdFusion Studio. The latter may surprise you, since there are no books specifically about ColdFusion Studio, but some ColdFusion books do pay attention to the IDE, so I'm highlighting them here. Given that this Bookstore is part of HomeSite Help, these two bookshelves should hardly be surprising, but I may add bookshelves for other programs later. Let me know what you'd like to see.
Go to Site Building Software.

Although the languages used for Client-Side Programming can be used for server-side scripting as well, I've grouped them together here. You'll find bookshelves about JavaScript, VBScript and ActiveX.
Go to Client-Side Programming.

With Server-Side Programming you can make your website truly dynamic. This section is divided into several bookshelves for the main Server-Side Programming languages and technologies. (To avoid repetition, I've not included JavaScript and VBScript here, you'll find those in the Client-Side Programming section.) You'll find bookshelves for Perl, PHP, ColdFusion, Java Server Pages, Active Server Pages and ActiveX. Do you miss your favorite language? Let me know!
Go to Server-Side Programming.

While with server-side programming it is entirely possible to create a dynamic website without using a database, when the application becomes more serious or the site is intended for e-commerce, you'll find a database indispensable. This section about Databases has several separate bookshelves for the major databases and technologies used on the web. You'll find shelves not only about MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, Access, ODBC and ADO but also database design in general and SQL.
Go to Databases.

In this section you'll find books about Web Server Software, the software that actually implements the HTTP and related protocols. For now, I'm including a general section, as well as separate pages for Apache, and IIS. If you miss your favorite webserver, please let me know so I can add it.
Go to Web Server Software.

This section of The Bookstore is dedicated to Operating Systems: those that are frequently used to run web server software on. Because it's a rather big subject, with lots of books, the section is subdivided into three bookshelves: Unix, Linux and Windows (NT & 2000). You'll also find some recommendations from Amazon in the side bar for each; reload the page to see different results.
Go to Operating Systems.

You're the expert, the real webmaster, and those around you are still all webrookies. You've struggled through all the books, and now you know it all. Feels great, doesn't it? So now your boss tells you you'll have to coach those rookies to become just as expert at the job as you are. To some, Coaching comes naturally, while others have no idea how to go about it. If you're in the latter category, don't worry, I've found some help for you!
Go to Coaching.

Some books just don't fit cleanly into any category that would make sense to webmasters and web designers since they aren't 'howto' books or books to give you ideas about designing websites - yet make interesting reading for that same target group So here you'll find some 'Other books' that I found interesting, and you might, too.
Go to Other books.

Of course every decent bookstore also sells some Software these days and the HomeSite Help Bookstore is no exception. Only one shelf is filled for now, but this will soon be extended!
Go to Software.

You can use these search forms to search Amazon.com's or Amazon.co.uk's catalog for books, software, and more. And let me know what you missed so I can add it!

Find:  In:  Books Software Computers Popular Music Classical Music Video DVD

Find:  In:  Books Software Electronics Popular Music Classical Music Video DVD