Books, books, I need some books...

[DefStatic]

I was at the bookstore today, and decided it woul dbe in my best interest to obtain some books on some of this stuff I am learning, so I have something in print to read, although I love all the ways I have been learning on here.

I was wondering what books people might recomend for these topics:
CSS
pHp
Dreamweaver

I am not looking at spedning more than $25 a book. I was also thinking of going with those FOR DUMMIES books. At first, I thought they were really for DUMMIES, but I have checked out a few on various topics, and they are actually really nice.

[blazzar]

A few books I like:

- The ZEN of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag
- Bulletproof Web Design: Improving Flexibility and Protecting Against Worst-Case Scenarios with XHTML and CSS by Dan Cederholm

[Dan Schulz]

HTML, XHTML and CSS Visual Quickstart Guide, 6th Edition by Elizabeth Castro (it's not just for HTML/XHTML, it also deals a lot with CSS and how the two markup languages interact with each other) is what I recommend.

I also recommend Designing with Web Standards, 2nd Edition by Jeffery Zeldman. I find these two books to be a wondeful one-two punch that will set anyone straight on how to properly code using (X)HTML and CSS while adhering to Web standards.

Most public libraries should have these books in their collections by now. Great (and free) way to read them.

It's the only way I "try before I buy" these days.

[r937]

there are several really good books available through sitepoint --
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/

[smittenbite]

PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickpro Guide) by larry ullman. , this will give you good basics and started using php pretty well

php phrasebook - christian wenz , good guide and reminder about how to do common things in php, good for quick checks and reference.

these two should get you started and stay good as references while still learning

[webfinity]

Check out the used books through Amazon.com. I'm amazed by the prices some of the books sell for.

[DaStuff]

I know you said you wanted books, but I can guarantee you can learn anything from a book here on SP if you put in the time

But if not I've gotten a few of the books here, and also the css zen garden one..

They're all helpful for reading. But once again there is a more complete picture here (just by going through all the Resources sticky threads).

G'luck

[Net-Margin]

Kevin Yanks PHP and MySQL book is a brilliant insight to using PHP and how to set it up on your machine. I would also vouch for the CSS books as they're a nice read.

Check out Amazon in the Web Development section, they give a great synopsis and you have a huge choice.

[MTbiker]

HTML, XHTML and CSS Visual Quickstart Guide, 6th Edition by Elizabeth Castro (it's not just for HTML/XHTML, it also deals a lot with CSS and how the two markup languages interact with each other) is what I recommend.

Yes, that's a great book for beginners and seems to cover almost everything. They use it for the "web technologies" class at my school.

Also look at Don't Make Me Think which is useful for design and simply a good and fun read.

[Nadia P]

In addition to the books already mentioned, with regards to Dreamweaver and CSS, you don't need to spend any money first off, you can follow the tutorials at the Adobe site for free.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/css.html
as for php and dreamweaver - this book is great - helped me set up apache and php on my pc - and I am a complete programming neophyte
Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8

The CSS Books at Sitepoint by Rachel Andrew are great... real practical lessons to follow.

The Zen book mentioned is a great coffee table book, but in my honest opinion would not be as useful for learning at this point in time as some of the others mentioned ... maybe borrow it from a library. Actually borrowing the books in the first instance may be the best idea, that way you can see which author/book styles you are more comfortable with.

Nadia