Top JavaScript books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite JavaScript books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of JavaScript

Understanding the concepts of JavaScript starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Introducing functional programming with Underscore.js

How can you overcome JavaScript language oddities and unsafe features? With this book, you’ll learn how to create code that’s beautiful, safe, and simple to understand and test by using JavaScript’s functional programming support. Author Michael Fogus shows you how to apply functional-style concepts with Underscore.js, a JavaScript library that facilitates functional programming techniques. Sa…

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JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide

JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide is the fastest way to learn JavaScript and use it together with CSS3 and HTML5 to create powerful web and mobile experiences. Learn how to do what you want, the way you want, one incredibly easy step at a time. JavaScript has never been this simple!

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JavaScript Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming

JavaScript Crash Course is a fun-filled, fast-paced introduction to programming with JavaScript. Dive right in and you’ll be writing code, solving problems, and building working web applications and games in no time. You’ll start by learning fundamental programming concepts, such as variables, arrays, objects, functions, conditionals, loops, classes, and more. Aided by engaging examples and ha…

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Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja

More than ever, the web is a universal platform for all types of applications, and JavaScript is the language of the web. If you're serious about web development, it's not enough to be a decent JavaScript coder. You need to be ninja-stealthy, efficient, and ready for anything. This book shows you how. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Mannin…

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Javascript: The Definitive Guide

Since 1996, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide has been the bible for JavaScript programmers—a programmer's guide and comprehensive reference to the core language and to the client side JavaScript APIs defined by web browsers. The 6th edition covers HTML5 and ECMAScript 5. Many chapters have been completely rewritten to bring them in line with today's best web development practices. New chapters…

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Additional JavaScript Reading

These books are not required for you to learn JavaScript, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

JavaScript from Beginner to Professional: Learn JavaScript Quickly by Building Fun, Interactive, and Dynamic Web Apps, Games, and Pages

JavaScript Absolute Beginner's Guide is the fastest way to learn JavaScript and use it together with CSS3 and HTML5 to create powerful web and mobile experiences. Learn how to do what you want, the way you want, one incredibly easy step at a time. JavaScript has never been this simple!

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Professional JavaScript for Web Developers

This book provides a developer-level introduction along with more advanced and useful features of JavaScript. Coverage includes: JavaScript use with HTML to create dynamic webpages, language concepts including syntax and flow control statements variable handling given their loosely typed nature built-in reference types such as object and array object-oriented programing powerful aspects of fun…

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High Performance JavaScript

If you're like most developers, you rely heavily on JavaScript to build interactive and quick-responding web applications. The problem is that all of those lines of JavaScript code can slow down your apps. This book reveals techniques and strategies to help you eliminate performance bottlenecks during development. You'll learn how to improve execution time, downloading, interaction with the DO…

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Pro JavaScript Design Patterns

With Pro JavaScript Design Patterns, you’ll start with the basics of object-oriented programming in JavaScript applicable to design patterns, including making JavaScript more expressive, inheritance, encapsulation, information hiding, and more. The book then details how to implement and take advantage of several design patterns in JavaScript. Each chapter is packed with real-world examples of …

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JavaScript for Impatient Programmers

This book makes JavaScript less challenging to learn for newcomers, by offering a modern view that is as consistent as possible. Highlights: Get started quickly, by initially focusing on modern features. Test-driven exercises and quizzes available for most chapters (sold separately).

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Learning JavaScript Design Patterns

Do you want to write beautiful, structured, and maintainable JavaScript by applying modern design patterns to the language? Do you want clean, efficient, manageable code? Want to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices? If so, the updated second edition of Learning JavaScript Design Patterns is the ideal place to start. Author Addy Osmani shows you how to apply modern design patterns to…

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Specializations and Deeper JavaScript Knowledge

You've got your basics in order – time to move on to some advanced and specialized concepts. JavaScript is evolving every day, these books can help you master it.

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Master the World's Most-Used Programming Language

JavaScript is the programming language of the web and is used by more software developers today than any other programming language. For nearly 25 years this best seller has been the go-to guide for JavaScript programmers. The seventh edition is fully updated to cover the 2020 version of JavaScript, and new chapters cover classes, modules, iterators, generators, Promises, async/await, and meta…

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Hi, I'm Joey Pedicini, "Holistic CTO" As an early adopter of the philosophy "Human Driven Development," I believe in focusing on the human elements of software development—empowering people to harness both technical expertise and emotional intelligence to thrive in their careers. My mission is to bring more humanity into the …

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