jQuery: A Beginner's Guide by John Pollock

jQuery: A Beginner's Guide may not be bedtime reading for everyone but I found it very interesting. As an IT professional who uses jQuery quite regularly I was surprised how much I didn't know.

The problem is with the way we work now is that we don't read enough books, even me! If I want to do something with a product like jQuery then I typically Google how to do it and copy and paste someone else's work, changing it if necessary to do what I want. This works fine so long as you know what you can do, the problem is you don't always know the full capabilities of what is out there. Not every problem can be solved by a Google search. That's why books like this which cover all the basics are so worthwhile as they at least let you know what is possible.

It's not just in IT that the problem lies, it is life generally today. Too often we type a question into Google, expecting a wholesome response. Not all problems are that simple and sometimes a more systematic approach works better - few of us have the patience to undertake such a review often enough. Unfortunately we live in a world which has been condensed down to 140 characters. Can you imagine Thomas Hardy or Charles Darwin writing a Tweet?

I'll really have to try and read more IT books as they keep me a little bit ahead of the curve, or less far behind anyway! I've a couple of more IT books from the library at the moment which I'll flick through but not read in full. But jQuery: A Beginner's Guide is a good book which covers the subject well, and I award it 9 out of 10.

Next up is Delete This At Your Peril by Bob Servant. This is another IT book but far more light-hearted than most of the books on the shelves.

Delete This At Your Peril is about a man who takes on e-mail spammers. It's a series of spoof messages in the tradition of Henry Root and Robin Cooper, but using e-mails rather than written letters. I've enjoyed both Henry Root and Robin Cooper in the past, so am very much looking forward to this one.