The team of I Programmer book reviewers read a lot of programming titles, and our programmer's bookshelf section provides a guide to those that we thought were among the best, with recommendations of the books you might find helpful at different stages in your personal development.

This is our selection of JavaScript books for experienced developers in JavaScript. If you're starting out using JavaScript, check out our selection in JavaScript Beginners Book Choice.

If you want to read more of the original review click in the link in each title. Clicking on the book jacket in the side panel will take you to Amazon. If you just want to find out more about the book click in the top portion of t thumbnail to open the book's product details page. If you do decide to make a book purchase accessing Amazon from a link on I Programmer means that we are credited with a few cents - so thanks to all of you who support us in this way.

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

Author: David Flanagan
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pages: 1100
ISBN: 9780596805524

This is the updated 7th edition of The Definitive Guide, and although our review of the 6th edition criticised it for being "too big to carry and too big to read"and described the presentation as "very dry", it also concluded that it is pretty close to being a JavaScript Bible and as such it is recommended to the reader who is:

"sophisticated about programming and prepared to put work into decoding the text of the book".

Beautiful JavaScript

Editor:  Anton Kovalyov
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pages:168 
ISBN: 978-1449370756

This is a book that aims to get you thinking about JavaScript as more than a scripting language or simply a failed version of Java or C++, according to Ian Elliot, who gave this book 4.5 stars. With the subtitle "Leading Programmers Explain How They Think", it is a collection of essays by different authors and each one treats their subject in a very different way. There is nothing uniform about this book and what each of the authors attempts to convey is idiosyncratic in content and style.

If you are, or on your way to becoming, a sophisticated JavaScript programmer you will probably find something to amuse or interest you. 

JavaScript Jems: The Amazing Parts

Author: Mike James
Publisher: I/O Press
Pages: 218
ISBN: 978-1871962420

This book is a "meditation" on the features that make JavaScript stand apart from other languages and make it special in terms of having admirable qualities. Author Mike James has written a series of twenty "Jems" each showing the language in a new light, each intended to be an enjoyable read for any JavaScript programmer about features that have their advantages and disadvantages over their counterparts in other languages.

As it is part of the I/Programmer library we don't have a full review but it has a 5-star rating on Amazon. It is intended for every developers who encounters JavaScript – not just its aficionados but also its detractors - who are interested in how JavaScript does things differently and hopefully will learn how its differences can be exploited and put to good use.

Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja 

Author: John Resig & Bear Bibeault
Publisher: Manning
Pages: 300
ISBN: 978-1933988696

Reviewing this book, Ian Elliot said that there is no doubt that if anyone deserves to be called a JavaScript Ninja it's John Resig, one of this book's authors and creator of jQuery among other things. Ian gave the book 4.8 out of 5 stars, and said that this book isn't for the complete beginner and it isn't a coherent course introducing JavaScript even to a programmer. What it is is a set of readings that looks at how JavaScript is different.

Ian's conclusion was that an alternative title for the book could have been "JavaScript - the interesting parts", describing it as a lot of fun and it could well make readers rethink their attitude to JavaScript and how they use it.

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