Reader reviews

The clearest explanation of javascript I have come across.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Well worth picking up if you already have the basics.

This is the third book I have read on javascript this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. A good addition to a technical library, as long as you know what you are buying.

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with javascript.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

I have been working with ai & machine learning for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Useful in parts. Fine as a reference, less so as a cover-to-cover read.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. Useful as a reference, less so as a straight read from cover to cover.

Good book. The writing is direct and the author is honest about limits.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The chapters on javascript are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.