Reader reviews

The clearest explanation of javascript I have come across.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. The chapters on javascript are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with javascript.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

This is the third book I have read on analytics this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with analytics.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. Solid, and I would buy another book from this author without hesitation.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.