10 Best JavaScript Books For Beginners to Advanced (2024)

Introduction

In September 1995, Brandan Eich, a Netscape programmer, created a new programming language in just ten days. It was originally known as Mocha, but it was soon renamed LiveScript, and then JavaScript. It was created out of necessity but is now used to build 95.2 per cent of all websites, including some of the largest in the world, such as Facebook and YouTube. We wouldn’t have popular and helpful web apps like Google Maps and eBay without it. Every web developer today knows the importance of having a good understanding of JavaScript. It is not only widely used in both web pages and web applications, but it is also used to add interactivity to your sites and applications.

JavaScript is a friendly, flexible, and powerful programming language used to create interactive content on the web and can be further applied in server-side scripting. Successfully learning how to use JavaScript can open doors to new career opportunities in the vast world of web development. 

If you’ve been on this journey of learning to code for a while now. Great work! We’re really happy you are here reading this post! The books below are the best out there to help you learn what you need to know to get started coding in the JavaScript language. These books capture different approaches to the art of programming for the web. They’ll help you become a more creative and effective JavaScript developer.

Best JavaScript Books

Best JavaScript Books for Beginners

1. Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide, 1st Edition

This is another gem from the Head First series, and it will teach you JavaScript in its own brand style, which means a lot of interactive reading and activities. The book is a must-read for every JavaScript novice and is excellent for anyone who wants to learn JavaScript. You’ll be playing games, solving puzzles, pondering riddles, and interacting with JavaScript in ways you’ve never imagined. You’ll also create a lot of real code so you can start creating your own web applications. Prepare to expand your horizons as you learn (and master) crucial topics such as the inner workings of JavaScript, how JavaScript interacts with the browser, and more topics like – JavaScript Types’ Secrets, the power of functions, using arrays, the best way to work with objects, using prototypes as a starting point, understanding the concept of closures, Application development and testing.

Price: $53.99
Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Author: Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Robson

2. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript by Mark Myers

If you’re new to programming and have no prior experience with the JavaScript language, then this is the book for you. It’s also for intermediate JavaScript developers who want to improve their language knowledge. After you’ve finished each chapter, you can practice what you’ve learned with interactive tasks on the author’s website. This book will teach you all you need to know in layman’s terms

Topics covered:

• Fundamentals of JavaScript
  
• Advanced notions such as constructors and prototypes
  
• Illustrations and diagrams are used to help students grasp the topics.
  
• Events
  
• DOM
  
• Browser Control

Price: ₹1692.00
Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Author: Mark Myers

3. Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition: A Modern Introduction to Programming

This book is seriously amazing for beginners and intermediate JavaScript developers, as it covers fundamentals such as control structure, function, and data structure. You’ll learn more ideas like error handling and bug fixing, modularity, and asynchronous programming as you get deeper into it. It will also teach you how to use DOM properly, as well as the syntax, control, data, and basic web apps. After you’ve learned these topics, you can put your knowledge to the test using the exercises included. You’ll be able to build clean, attractive, and practical code after reading this book thoroughly. Thanks to an easy-to-understand and relatable language, Eloquent JavaScript allows the reader to effortlessly absorb all the information. Although not strictly a JavaScript book, it does provide an overview of JavaScript programming.

Price: ₹2549.00
Rating: 4.6 out  of 5
Author: Marijin Haverbeke

4. Learn JavaScript Visually

Learn JavaScript VISUALLY is the best book for those who want to quickly grasp the basics of JavaScript. The book’s name comes from the fact that it uses a visual method to explain basic JavaScript principles. Using metaphors, analogies, and simple step-by-step activities, this beautifully illustrated book explains JavaScript principles. Visual learners retain knowledge in a fundamentally different way than the people who do not, and hence require distinct strategies. Because your brain never forgets an image, metaphor, or schema, this book will be a great read.

Price: ₹5254.95
Rating: 4.1 out  of 5
Author: Ivelin Demirov

Intermediate JavaScript Books

5. Effective JavaScript

The author of Effective JavaScript, David Herman, is an experienced programmer. In the book, he uses realistic and elaborate examples to demonstrate his technical knowledge. This fantastic JavaScript book is sure to teach any JS developer something, regardless of skill level. Effective JavaScript: 68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript is appropriate for anyone who has a good understanding of the fundamentals of JavaScript. The JavaScript book takes readers on a detailed tour of the interpreted high-level programming language. From floating-point number precision to semicolon insertion and type coercion, the book introduces readers to the dynamic, prototype-based, and weakly-typed programming language. It goes on to discuss recommended practices for working with API design, arrays, concurrency, functions, libraries, and objects, among other topics.

Price: ₹4274.00
Rating: 4.6 out  of 5
Author: David Herman

6. You Don’t Know JS by Kyle Simpson

“You Don’t Know JS” is not a single book; it is a collection of six well-written and arranged books for mastering JavaScript. This collection of books will help you improve your JavaScript skills and gain a thorough overview of the key ideas. It requires a basic understanding of the JavaScript language, therefore I wouldn’t advocate starting with these if you’re unfamiliar with programming languages like C, C++, or Java. This collection of books will help you improve your JavaScript skills and gain a thorough understanding of the key ideas. 

The series begins with the fundamentals of JavaScript before going on to closures, objects, scopes, and finally ES2016 modifications. The series’ books are nearly 100 pages long. As a result, the entire series is shorter than a typical thorough JS book.

Price: ₹2800.00
Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Author: Kyle Simpson

 7. The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript

Nicholas C. Zakas delves deep into JavaScript’s object-oriented nature in The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript, demonstrating the language’s unique implementation of inheritance and other crucial properties. You will study the following: 

• The difference between primitive and reference values
  
• What makes JavaScript functions so unique
  
• The various ways to create objects
  
• How to define your own constructors
  
• How to deal with prototypes and understand them
  
• Inheritance patterns for types and objects
  

Even experienced developers will have a better knowledge of JavaScript after reading The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript. This book will help you discover the secrets of how JavaScript objects function, so you can build more readable, flexible, and efficient code.

Price: ₹2830.42
Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Author: Nicholas C. Zakas 

Advanced JavaScript Books

8. Programming JavaScript Applications: Robust Web Architecture with Node, HTML5, and Modern JS Libraries

This book straightaway takes you deep into the world of JavaScript Libraries. It enables you to use JavaScript to build a real-world application using JS. Programming JavaScript Applications is a fantastic book that gives you a thorough understanding of JavaScript app architecture. It goes over the fundamentals of functional programming, best practices in JS, prototyping, and object composition. It also covers login and authorization, feature toggle systems, logging, Node basics, and RESTful APIs, among many other topics.

Price: ₹600.00
Rating: 3.9 out of 5
Author: Eric Elliott

9. JavaScript: The Good Parts

Many in the development world regard author Douglas Crockford as the JavaScript guru, and he highlights the many good principles that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language ideas like functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, and an expressive object literal notation. When Java applets failed, JavaScript became the Web’s default language, making its popularity virtually entirely independent of its programming abilities. Crockford finally digs through the steaming pile of good intentions and blunders in JavaScript: The Good Elements to offer you a detailed look at all the truly elegant parts of JavaScript, including:

• Syntax
  
• Syntax
  
• Functions
  
• Inheritance
  
• Inheritance
  
• Arrays
  
• Regular Expression
  
• Methods
  
• Styles

What is the true beauty of the book? You’ll avoid having to unlearn all the terrible aspects as you progress through the JavaScript subset presented in this book. Of course, you can look up additional information about the problematic elements and how to exploit them in any other JavaScript book.

Price: ₹2017.00
Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Author: D Crockford

10. JavaScript – The Definitive Guide, 7e: The Definitive Guide: Master the World’s Most-used Programming Language

This top-selling has been the go-to guide for JavaScript programmers for nearly 25 years. New chapters cover classes, modules, iterators, generators, Promises, async/await, and meta-programming, and the seventh edition is fully updated to cover the 2020 version of JavaScript. Throughout the book, you’ll uncover insightful and entertaining examples of code. This book is intended for programmers who want to learn JavaScript and web developers who want to improve their knowledge and command of the language. It starts by going over the JavaScript language in detail from the ground up. The base is then built upon to cover the web platform and Node.js. 

Topics covered: Types, values, variables, expressions, operators, statements, objects, and arrays Functions, classes, modules, iterators, generators, Promises, and async/await JavaScript’s standard library: data structures, regular expressions, JSON, i18n, etc.

Price: ₹4173.00
Rating: 4.7 out of 5
Author: David Flanagan

Conclusion

You likely have a reason or two for wanting to jump into the wonderful world of JavaScript programming. Perhaps, you have extensive experience with tough languages and now seek a change of pace. Or, you may be tired of authoring lengthy code to perform basic tasks. Whatever your motive is, there are times when books are the best choice. Given the substantial number of JavaScript programming books that are on the market today, we suggest checking out one of these 10 titles, which we believe will get you started and keep you going on your journey towards becoming a productive JavaScript programmer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1: Can you learn JavaScript from a book?

You can learn almost anything from books, you just need to find the right one for you. We have collected the ten best books to learn JavaScript from.

Q.2: Should I learn Java or JavaScript?

Both languages have their own sets of pros and cons. If you are interested in software development, you should choose Java. If web development lures you, JavaScript should be your choice. Here is a recommended JavaScript free course by Scaler Topics that will help you get started.

Q.3: What is the difference between Java and JavaScript?

Java is a standalone programming language, while JavaScript is a scripting language.

Q.4: Is it worth learning JavaScript in 2023?

You can presume that JavaScript is highly relevant as long as people interact with the web. There’s doubt that this is a language worth learning.

Additional Resources

• Javascript Interview Questions
• Online Javascript Compiler
• JavaScript Features
• Javascript Projects
• Top JavaScript Libraries
• JavaScript IDE
• JavaScript Frameworks
• Difference Between HTML and JavaScript
• Javascript vs JQuery
• Javascript Vs Python
• Java vs Javascript
• Typescript vs Javascript