Thread: Good Books

I'm reserving this thread where we, and youl, can list good book recommendations. We will VERY aggressively monitor this thread to avoid spam. The books can cover web design, templates, programming, xml, .net, SEO, Xslt, C#, VB, whatever...as long as it's related to what we all do here.

The thread is just meant as a resource in case the books we, and you all, find to be helpful, can also help others.

Again, if you spam this list with a ton of books which are clearly average/run of the mill, those posts will be deleted. We are looking for books that really help, make people think, educate, or otherwise clearly cover difficult (technical or non-technical topics) in a way that is really helpful. I realize this is somewhat subjective, but anyway, you all get the point of the thread.

Hope this makes sense...i'll post a few shortly to get things kicked off, and open the thread at that time.

Beginning XSLT, by Jenni Tennison

This is the best learning book we've seen for XmlPackages and XSLT. DO NOT let the "beginning" title fool you

She takes you from beginner XSLT 101 to very sophisticated XSLT constructs and does a fanstastic job. We get nothing for listing the book here. Your mileage may vary. The book is becomming harder to find, as it's now out of publication (go figure).

Amazon probably still has it (new or used):

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-XSLT.../dp/1861005946

"Dont' Make Me Think" by Steve Krug

Very very good book on web usability and design. Steve Kurg, Don't Make me Think.

it makes YOU think

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-T...4430251&sr=1-1

Effective C# by Bill Wagner

The "bible" for proper C# class structures and techniques, getting dated now, but still VERY relevant. Much of our code also follows these recommendations (although we do not agree with every one of course).

Hope they update it to C# 3.0 soon!!


http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Spec.../dp/0321245660

Bulletproof Web Design, By Dan Cederholm

Just fantastic book, that also exposes humor (at least to me) and had me ROFLOL'ing on the floor many times, as he's EXACTLY right that the bus/marketing guys/gals sometimes have no clue ROFLOL!!

HIGHLY recommended, it teaches you how to design and what can go wrong (and we all know murphy, it ALWAYS goes wrong).

Don't miss this book, especially if you are designing skins.

http://www.amazon.com/Bulletproof-We...4430566&sr=1-1

Transcending CSS, Andy Clarke

Not an A+ book, but an A- book which you really still need to read, especially for skin designers. VERY VERY dry to read oh well...

http://www.amazon.com/Transcending-C...4430689&sr=1-1

Come on everyone, no other books to list/suggest here? Surely we are not the only ones reading books?

My two reccomendations are these both complement each other and are focused on analytics to find out where you have issues and then how to analyse the reports and act on them to increase conversion rates. Coz its all about the conversion rate right? (Well almost!):

The first is the best Analytics book out there by some margin:

Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik. Its chocked full of great stuff, just do yourself a favour and get it, read through and implement it. Avinash is the Google Analytics Evangelist, but he is immensly respected accross the whole SEO and analytics industry. This is the book to get on the subject.

Secondly is the book from Bryan Eisenberg- Call To Action Again there is tons of great stuff in here, on site optimisation tips. You should read as much as you can on Bryans 'Persuasuin Architecture' great stuff.

Ben

Why-We-Buy - The Science of Shopping

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Buy-Sci...dp/158799044X/

Another Real good book that will give webmasters an inside of how a costumer is actually shopping,

That book actually taught me how to look at everything when it comes to usability

CHS

I'll second "Don't Make me Think" by Steve Krug.

Jon Skeet's C# 3 books is awesome. If you're transitioning to all the new language features, this is a really great approach.



http://www.amazon.com/Depth-What-you.../dp/1933988363

Just finished the book below....good primer on the new features of .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. One of the first books out on the subject.

@ Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/bR7SXU

Having learned that SEO is essential to getting a website maximum clicks, I would have to say the SEO Book did a good job of guiding me through each and every step of the process. While it is imperative to take a hands on approach to pick up the skill quicker and become more efficient at it, this book is a great tool to reference in starting anything SEO related.

Are there any aspdotnetstorefront books specifically? I'm getting frustrated with the lack of documentation. I need 'baby steps' or something equivalent. I'm a .NET programmer, but I need a reference of all teh object, methods, properties, and events available for customizations.
For example: I'm writing a custom ASPX page to handle multiple subscriptions and I can't find ANYTHING that explains the basics of aspdnsf.

frustrating. How does anyone use it?...

Oh! it's really a awesome post.I am waiting for new books that can help me to know about
web programing.I am new in IT sector but I am very much interested about new things.
So please carry on.
Thank you.