Mark Pilgrim (1) (1972–)

None of this "hello world" tripe, you start by reading an ODBC client. If you've already picked up three or four programming languages, this is where you should head next. Particularly useful in new-hire firehose mode: "We'll count your perl experience as useful, but you've got to be willing to port yourself to python. Still interested? Start here." (I happen to think python is the *last* language you'll need for a while - but you don't have to agree with that to find this book very effective.)

The book is slightly dated with the security release of the latest greasemonkey but there are some excellent ideas here that just need some minor modifications to work in the new version. I enjoyed reading this and it helped me get a grip on my Greasemonkey foo.

A bit thin given the price, this is nevertheless a useful overview of the constituent parts of HTML5. Contains useful tips and a surprising amount of detailed code, though like all computing books the risk of obsolescence is high.

good