Best JS books and JavaScript books list — curated recommendations from beginner to advanced.
A curated list of the best JavaScript books (JS books) — free and paid — for beginners through advanced developers. If you’re searching for top JavaScript books, best JS books, or simply great JavaScript programming books to level up, start here.
Contents
JavaScript Books
Beginner
Eloquent JavaScript (4th Edition) — Free to read online
A modern introduction to programming with lots of exercises and small projects. Great if you want practice, not just theory.
The JavaScript Tutorial — Free
A structured online “book” that starts from fundamentals and builds toward real-world language and browser topics.
JavaScript for Kids — Paid
A friendly, hands-on introduction that teaches core programming ideas through small games and visual examples.
Head First JavaScript Programming — Paid
A highly visual, beginner-friendly approach that helps concepts stick through exercises and puzzles.
Intermediate
You Don’t Know JS Yet (2nd Edition) — Free on GitHub
A deep-dive series that explains why JavaScript behaves the way it does (scope, closures, types, async, etc.). Great once you’ve written some JS and want to level up.
Effective JavaScript — Paid
68 practical tips that improve correctness, readability, and maintainability. Focuses on the sharp edges and best practices.
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide — Paid
A comprehensive reference that covers the language plus important web platform APIs.
Learning JavaScript Design Patterns — Free
Classic patterns and practical guidance for structuring applications, plus common anti-patterns to avoid.
Advanced
JavaScript: The Good Parts — Paid
A short, opinionated classic that highlights powerful ideas in the language (and pitfalls to avoid). Useful for historical context and fundamentals.
JavaScript Enlightenment — Free
A compact, detail-oriented exploration of the language’s tricky parts—great for strengthening mental models.
DOM Enlightenment — Free
A focused technical guide to the DOM, events, and the realities of browser scripting.
JavaScript in Depth
Speaking JavaScript — Free
A detailed guide for programmers coming from other languages; explains JS concepts, idioms, and common patterns.
Exploring ES6 — Free to read online
A thorough walkthrough of ES2015 features and how they changed modern JavaScript.
Understanding ECMAScript 6 — Paid
A clear explanation of ES6 features with examples and rationale—good if you want a book format rather than an online guide.
Web APIs & Browser
MDN Web Docs: JavaScript Guide — Free
The go-to reference for core language concepts with examples and links to related Web APIs.
MDN Web Docs: Web APIs — Free
Reference pages for DOM, events, fetch, storage, canvas, and many other browser APIs.
Node.js
Node.js Design Patterns — Paid
A strong guide to building scalable Node applications with proven patterns, architecture, and async best practices.
The Node.js Handbook — Free
A practical, fast-moving introduction to Node concepts, modules, npm, and building simple apps.
TypeScript
TypeScript Handbook — Free
The official guide that explains the type system, narrowing, generics, and best practices.
Effective TypeScript — Paid
A best-practices book focused on writing TypeScript that is safe, ergonomic, and maintainable.
Testing
Testing JavaScript Applications — Paid
A practical approach to testing strategy—unit, integration, UI, and tooling choices.
Jest Documentation — Free
Hands-on docs for unit and integration testing with a popular JavaScript test runner.
Performance & Reliability
Web Performance 101 — Free to read online
A modern performance primer: metrics, loading strategies, and real-world optimization techniques.
High Performance Browser Networking — Free to read online
Deep dive into how browsers and networks actually work (TCP/TLS/HTTP/2/3), and what that means for performance.
Resources
- ECMAScript (Language Spec) — The official JavaScript specification.
- Can I use — Browser support tables for Web platform features.
- MDN Web Docs — Reference + guides across the Web platform.
- Frontend Masters Book Collection — Several high-quality JS-related books.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome!
- Add a book with: title + link + price tag + 1–3 sentence original blurb
- Prefer official sources (author/publisher/site) over third-party summaries
- Keep descriptions original (no copy-paste)
See CONTRIBUTING.md.
License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
See LICENSE.