Recommend a book...

[iGary]

I'm going to start out by saying that when it comes to HTML, my knowledge is very limited. I know the tags, I can build a very simple text-based Web site and am familiar with what files to upload via FTP etc.

I want to be able to make a couple of very clean, fairly simple, but elegant Web sites. One for photography, one for a virtual tours.

I have a pile of CSS and (x)HTML books on my shelves, I own Dreamweaver and can kind of use it, but I am wondering if anyone can recommend a kind of "Step A through Z" book on designing, coding and building a decent Web site.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I am also a Lynda.com member if anyone knows of any particularly good tutorials there.

[montanachad]

Check out the books, PDFs, and videos on Site Point (http://sitepoint.com).

[angelwatt]

I'd probably avoid working from a book because it's good to get different people's perspective on design and execution. I subscribe to RSS feeds on web design and the like to keep an influx of new ideas to think about to apply to web design.

Here are some of the RSS feeds I'm subscribed too:

456 Berea Street (http://www.456bereastreet.com/feed.xml)
A List Apart (http://alistapart.com/rss.xml)
Boxes and Arrows (http://feeds.feedburner.com/BoxesAndArrows_Stories)
CSS Web Designer's Blog (http://blog.designdelineations.com/feed/)
JeffCroft.com Journal (http://www2.jeffcroft.com/feeds/blog/)
Monday By Noon (http://mondaybynoon.com/feed/)

[kingofkolt]

I currently use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and mySQL for web development, and everything I learned of those languages came from the "Teach Yourself in 24 Hours" series from Sams Publishing. They're a great series of books with 24 1-hour chapters which each cover a different aspect of whatever the topic is. The first one I read was "Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours" and I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for an education in the fundamentals of web design.

[iGary]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I actually started watching some tutorials on XHTML and CSS over at Lynda.com, and I think that will give me a good basis on the languages. From there, I think I can lay out what I want and figure out how to make it with the remaining books I do have.

More suggestions still welcome, though.

Thanks.