Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
— Groucho Marx
Recommended Reading
The ever-changing landscape of the web and the market
Five years from now, you will be the same person you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read. Here are a few books that can help you grow, and hopefully we'll get to meet some day.
Web Design & Web Writing
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug
Usability design is one of the most important--yet often least attractive--tasks for a Web developer. In Don't Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples.
Available on Amazon »
Designing with Web Standards
by Jeffrey Zeldman
In this book, he explains how designers can best use standards, primarily XHTML and CSS and the standard Document Object Model (DOM), to increase their personal productivity and maximize the availability of their creations.
Available on Amazon »
Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design
by Andy Clarke
This book has a great influence over my design. I tend to go back through it before building any large site. It's not a how-to so much as it's a why-to. Andy goes back to print design and the logic behind actual design (not decoration).
Available on Amazon »
Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters
by Scott Rosenberg
“The birth of newspapers, radio and television were fascinating events, filled with larger-than-life characters. The thing is, you didn't live through that, and the other thing is, there's not a lot you can do about it now. Blogging is now, it's real, it's fascinating and you're not just watching. Scott takes you on a guided tour of what got us to where we are today."
— Seth Godin, author of Tribes and Purple Cow
Available on Amazon »
Design
Helvetica
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It's an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work and the creative process.
Available on Amazon »
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
by Victoria Finlay
Defining color is a simple matter-visible light of a particular wavelength. Or is it? It turns out that the pigments and dyes responsible for hues have many remarkable characteristics, most of which we rarely ponder.
Available on Amazon »
Philosophy & Language
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Almost everyone who as read this book will tell you that it was one of the most influential events in their life, myself included. I've read this book twice, the most recent time as this unabridged audiobook. Ayn tells a great story with fascinating characters and expresses her unique philosophy: Objectivism. Capitalism has never looked so good.
Available on Amazon »
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
The narrator takes a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip with his son during which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details — be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle.
Available on Amazon »
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
by Lynne Truss
Truss takes us on a whirlwind journey through proper punctuation, which for us type nerds also means proper typography. You won’t find a more approachable manual for style and usage.
Available on Amazon »
Marketing
Free: The Future of a Radical Price
by Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company's survival.
Available on Amazon »
Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
by Chris Anderson
In the most important business book since The Tipping Point, Chris Anderson shows how the future of commerce and culture isn't in hits, the high-volume head of a traditional demand curve, but in what used to be regarded as misses--the endlessly long tail of that same curve.
Available on Amazon »
Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
by Seth Godin
Internet marketing and relationship marketing are the subject of numerous books, but Seth Godin's Permission Marketing does a better job of explaining the concepts better than any other single volume.
Available on Amazon »
Social Media Marketing
by Dave Evans
This book will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign.
Available on Amazon »
Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read
by Scott McNulty
This book will get you going with the basics very quickly. It's written in a way that assumes no previous knowledge of WordPress. In the into, the author says: "WordPress can be extended by little bits of code called plug-ins." This smooth and flowing style of writing can be very helpful to you if you're a new WordPress blogger.
Available on Amazon »
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by Don Tapscott
The word "wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian, and here author and think tank CEO Tapscott (The Naked Corporation), along with research director Williams, paint in vibrant colors the quickly changing world of Internet togetherness.
Available on Amazon »
The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
by Rebecca Lieb
If you aren't familiar with SEO, this is a great place to start. It's not a technical book, it's more aimed at managers or small business owners that need to figure out what what needs to be done and who they need to hire.
Available on Amazon »
Photography
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
With Lightroom you can quickly import, process, manage, and showcase your images — from one shot to an entire shoot. Quickly batch process, convert, and apply metadata to your photos on import. I've tried to explain this program several times, it's not Photoshop, it's something entirely different, if you shoot digital photos, you need this program. I can process hundreds of photos in a few minutes with it as well as create some great effects and fix the color perfectly.
Available on Amazon »
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers
by Martin Evening
This book by a professional fashion photographer contains 624 pages of comprehensive and detailed coverage of all aspects of Lightroom. Learn how to use this amazing program to your advantage.
Available on Amazon »
Lightroom 2: Streamlining your Digital Photography Process
Written and designed by a professional photographer, designer, fine art printmaker and instructor, this book is designed to simplify and accelerate the learning process and is unique in both content and presentation.
Available on Amazon »
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