Looking for web design book suggestions.

html, is not necessary i guess, you've a lot of information available on the web.

to CSS i chose: CSS: the definitive guide.
to javascript: Learning JavaScript By Shelley Powers
to php: PHP and MySQL Bible and Web Database Application with PHP and MySQL, and get used to check www.php.net manuals.

 

Yeah, you can find a lot of good information on pretty much any web language online.

 

Another resource you might like to consider is video tutorials. Lynda.com has some great stuff for basic html/css right through to development.

 

Look at books from these publishers:

http://www.deitel.com/

http://oreilly.com/

http://www.apress.com/

http://www.pragprog.com/

http://www.packtpub.com/

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/

Learn XHTML, CSS, Javascript/jQuery first. Then you can move on to server side scripting lanuages (Perl, PHP, etc...), SQL and XML.

 

Look no further, this is what you want:

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/html2/ (updated recently)

I have several books from Sitepoint, and they are always a pleasure to read and study. It's very hands-on, real world, and best practices driven. All their books are very accessible to the various disciplines, such as graphic designers, programmers, database designers, etc. They also have a great online community. I know you'll be pleased with that purchase. They have some nice PHP/MySQL and Javascript books as well, for when you're ready to take it to that level.

By the way, kudos to you for wanting to expand your skillset and enrich your opportunities. Continuing (self) education is, in my opinion, a great way to keep life interesting. It's certainly the best way to enhance your earning potential. Good luck!

Oh yeah: I can vouch for the Lynda video training, too. Great stuff, check 'em out! (yes, it's worth the money)

 

I'm the same; need a book to read. I went crazy and bought a load of books from apress. 'Beginning CSS Web Development from Novice to Professional' was the only poor one so far.
I can recommend the PHP, Actionscript, Pro CSS.

 

It doesn't really matter whether you're using HTML or XHTML, but aim for being able to do them in a strict DOCTYPE. Also know that HTML5 is on the move. HTML5 intrinsically is HTML and XHTML as it can be parsed as XML if desired. I'd probably suggest XHTML 1.0 Strict for while you're learning and you'll be able to transition to HTML5 in a snap, but if you want to go HTML 4.01 Strict that's fine too. Just be sure to aim for being able to validate at the strict level so you learn things the right way early on.

 

Ian's book Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS, 2nd Edition is pretty good. Easy read. There are few things mentioned that get overlooked in designing sites.