This is just a very short post to share with you how great I think the book Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML by O’Reilly is!

Learn HTML laughing

If you’ve ever wanted to learn HTML, and simply lost the will to live after about page 3, then this book is for you. It’s full of fun things – pictures, quotes, anecdotes and even crosswords. And crazy though it might seem, these things really do keep your attention and help the learning stick. I found myself chuckling at the ‘Confessions of the href attribute’ and realised that there was no way I could explain to my husband why that was remotely amusing!

A verbal and visual experience

I’m probably rather biased about the approach of the book, since I’m one of those trainers who can’t keep their hands off a flip chart. I love using pictures to share concepts. That may be partly due to the fact that I’m often teaching a foreign audience, so I think that visuals really help reinforce things. But I definitely think that more educational books should be like this. I’ve tried following online courses, but I start snoozing after 5 minutes of just watching someone else typing HTML on the screen. It's strange that someone who loves technology should be drawn to reading a book to learn about technology, rather than following an eLearning course?

Other books in the 'Head First' series?

Admittedly I haven’t studied any other O’Reilly Head First books as yet, but I'd love to hear your feedback if you’ve used any yourself? Or do you have a book you can recommend which was written in an unusual or uplifting style, that really helped accelerate your learning?

I look forward to learning from you!