Book Review: jQuery Pocket Reference

jQuery Pocket Reference
by David Flanagan
O'Reilly Media
Published: December 28, 2010  

Buy at: Amazon.com   Amazon.co.uk  

Concise but information-rich: an introduction rather than a reference book.

jQuery is popular with good reason: it really does simplify the way you write JavaScript. I'm all for the "less is more" approach (as my own book on smarter unit testing will confirm): less code usually means more maintainable code - as long as the code's intent is still clear, of course.

It seems fitting that for a lightweight library like jQuery, there should be a lightweight manual perched next to your keyboard. And jQuery Pocket Reference does the job perfectly. Its author David Flanagan (of the Java In A Nutshell fame) does a remarkable job of distilling the details into the book's 130 or so pages, while keeping the whole thing readable.

And the paperback's diminutive size has some unseen benefits...