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Can anyone recommend a decent JavaScript book for the total beginner?
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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I don't have any book recommendations but the MDN JavaScript[^] page has excellent tutorials. It's where I learned initially. Just go down that list on the left side starting with "Javascript Guide." 
modified 2-Mar-17 18:47pm.
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Awesome. Thanks!
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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Holy sh*t, I think I've been a Microsoft code monkey for way too long. I actually read that link as "MSDN JavaScript", and then freaked out when the link took me to a mozilla page. 
On the other hand, thanks very much for posting it. I will go through the page as well. 
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Haha, I've done that as well. I started out on C/C++, went to Perl, then to C# and all its related technologies. I actually started learning web development last since now everything seems to be web-integrated. MSDN and MDN are still probably my two most-viewed domains
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Been outside of the MS ecosystem for a while now, but I read the link as MSDN as well. On the second look I realized it's Mozilla docs
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Nice link - thanks, Jon!
/ravi
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I started studying it back in the 90s, so anything I can say is a bit dated. However, "back in the day" I read the first edition of the JavaScript Bible, and it was pretty darn good. It's up to the seventh edition now, but I'd suspect it's still a quality book.
JavaScript Bible[^]
Jeremy Falcon
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Thanks for that!
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Douglass Crockford's JavaScript - The Good Parts is oft considered seminal, but the language has changed a hell of a lot since then, but it is probably a good starter anyway. Everything in ES6 is just making things in ES5 easier, and so back down the ES lineage.
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This[^] is a useful reference, if you're using javascript.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Priceless. My next product development cycle is doing our UI in JavaScript, because "it's more modern, and we can use modern tools" to create it. 
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I struggled to come to grips with JS for ages until I came across
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I like the SAMS books as they start from the absolute beginning and work through a language using discrete lessons. Each lesson is supposed to take an hour -- which is probably accurate for a complete beginner -- however, anyone with any programming knowledge will buzz through the first 7 lessons in less than an hour.
SAMS Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours[^]
Each lesson has a quiz and exercises for practice, some of which are practical brain teasers. My learning style needs practical work to cement the lessons.
I had been out of programming professionally for a number of years and this book was a good introduction to JavaScript. [I have used 3 or 4 other SAMS books in the last 20 years with good results.] After finishing this book you'll want some of the other books that have been recommended, but for a beginner this one will help you develop basic knowledge which makes the other books easier to understand.
You can also look for free books. SyncFusion[^] has published a lot of books in their "Succinctly" series, including 8 that involve JavaScript. I downloaded JavaScript Succinctly but Cody Lindley, but haven't read it yet.
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I'm going to go get JavaScript: The Definitive Guide next. I have read the JavaScript the Good Parts about 1.5 years ago and it was good. I have the JavaScript Pocket Reference from O'Reilly and it's good but not for a beginner. I have read the Sync-Fusion Free e-books on JS and they are ok but the last one had a different approach and I'm no JS expert. I'm hoping this Definitive Guide will push me along. I'm an experienced professional programmer with 20+ years experience. Mainly Turbo Pascal, C,& C++ in DOS days and all flavors of Basic and VB to VB 6 and VB.net up to 4.0 framework. C# from the beginning to now including XAML in WPF and Silverlight, etc... Some Java along the way with others like Gupta SQL Windows/CB. Everything, but, M$ is Java or JavaScript these days. I've even done some objective-c, swift and Android Java lately. 
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Finding a good "introduction" book can be difficult. A programmer experienced in a subject needs a good reference ... which isn't good for learning.
Which is, of course, the OP's point in posting. 
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I would advise against starting with "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford and Kyle Simpson's "You don't know JS" series for an total beginner. I think these are best read after already having a basic understanding of JavaScript as well having put some time in front of the keyboard using JavaScript. Both books/series, however, I *highly* recommend. Do read them, but after you've read another introductory book. I have read "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers" by Nicholas C. Zakas and I think it is a great book for learning ES5. But I haven't read "Speaking Javascript", "Eloquent JavaScript", or "JavaScript: the Definitive Guide". However, Eric Elliot, an experience JavaScript programmer who has written his own JS book, has written an article that may help:
12 Books Every JavaScript Developer Should Read – JavaScript Scene – Medium[^]
After you've learned the language fundamentals, you will be overwhelmed with all the other "stuff" you will need to know. For all that "other stuff", I think you will find this other article, also by Eric Elliot, to be *very* helpful:
Top JavaScript Frameworks & Topics to Learn in 2017[^]
I'd also recommending subscribing to JavaScript Weekly to keep up to date on things and find out some great articles:
JavaScript Weekly: A Free, Weekly Email Newsletter[^]
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