Eloquent Javascript

What Hacker News says

1. jazzypantsMay 2026
   I'm a huge fan of this guy's work. His code is really easy to read, and I learn a lot every time I dig in. I think that Lezer [0] is underappreciated considering how flexible and performant it is.

   Edit: I just realized I didn't even mention his most famous work, Eloquent JavaScript [1]! This book is incredible. I couldn't finish it the first time, so I'm not sure if it's the best book for beginners, but I learned so much when I picked it back up a few years later that I think that every JavaScript programmer should read through it and do the exercises at least once.

   [0] https://lezer.codemirror.net/

   [1] https://eloquentjavascript.net/

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2. err4ntMay 2026
   Personally, I've cracked very few programming books and I've been building websites since ~2004 back when magazines and books were the best sources for information. Some people learn skills from books well, and some people end up bewildered and confused until they can actually try it out and see how it works. I need to explore to discover and learn.

   I did find "Eloquent JavaScript" very helpful, it didn't just get me started on JavaScript but actually introduced that whole computer-sciencey side of programming that I hadn't encountered in my various markup and stylesheet language coding. I never finished Eloquent JavaScript though, it was like a springboard that got me into JavaScript (which is dynamic and has an interactive runtime) and as soon as I could be having a conversation with JavaScript at runtime, from there I continued learning by talking to the REPL and seeing what happened.

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3. degunFeb 2025
   Also, the author of "Eloquent JavaScript", the book from which I learned the language. Endless respect for Marijn.
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4. rom1vAug 2024
   > Do you have any tip for learning js at it's fundamentals?

   I would recommend:

   - https://eloquentjavascript.net/

   - https://javascript.info/

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5. mooredsAug 2024
   When I needed to learn JS above the 'hack it out' level, Eloquent JavaScript was really great. It really focuses on fundamental constructs and is not tied to any 'framework of the day'.

   I see there's a 2024 edition that I should probably order.

   Update: Looks like the 2024 version is going to be released in Nov.

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6. fuzzythinkerAug 2024
   Seconded. I won't recommend it and no one I know has recommended it for a decade. It's hard for someone who doesn't know JS to know which parts has changed and is no longer the way to do things.

   https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS and

   https://eloquentjavascript.net/ are the 2 best source for learning JS.

   If you don't have time to read both, just go with https://eloquentjavascript.net/

   If one needs to go further, go through http://superherojs.com/ , just ignore links that are dead.

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