Beginners to CSS have a rough time of it. There's no escaping that tough, frustrating early stage before the light bulb clicks on and CSS becomes the coolest tool in your web kit. But don't despair—grab yourself a copy of Virginia DeBolt's newest book and you'll work your way through the newbie stage in no time at all.

Web Standards Creativity is a fascinating look at how some of the best designers in the business use web standard compliant markup and CSS to take web design to new heights of style and function. Based on actual "case studies," it's also an intriguing look inside these designers heads. The decision-making process they reveal teaches us as much about good design as the methods they're describing.

Have you been feeling lately that CSS and web standards are a little gray and fussy? Too much analytical-looking code and not enough va-vavoom? Well, get ready to have your hair blown back and the wind whistle in your ears. Andy Clarke is about to take you on rollickin' good ride.

It's hard to believe that a history of the early days of computing and (pre-Internet) networks could be exciting. You'd think a book about engineers would be about as thrilling as reading a calculus text. Yet in Where Wizards Stay Up Late, Hafner and Lyon have breathed life into a story about early computer geeks and their vision of a nationwide network.

1. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of using this book as bedtime reading material.

   The other night I couldn't get to sleep, so I thought, I'll start Zeldman's book on web standards, that ought'a knock me out. Wrong. At 4:30 a.m., I looked up and realized dawn wasn't too far off. I didn't care. I finished the chapter I was reading and barely kept myself from starting another.

The title of this book is particularly apt because solutions for designing with web standards is exactly what it's about. Beyond that, the book is difficult to define. It's not a sermon on web standards, although almost every example shows the benefits of doing so. On the other hand, it's not just a manual on CSS, although Cederholm shows how to markup and style everything from lists to forms to layouts.

It isn't often you can call a technical book lovely, but this one is. The Zen of CSS Design is one of those rare books in which every element seems to come together in perfect balance and harmony. Kind of Zen, actually. In my admittedly inexpert opinion, this is the best book on web design to come out this year. For me personally, it's been the best I've ever read. I don't know if it is the result of a random congruency of time, level of learning and need, but this book has inspired and excited me about web design more than any other.

I'll make you bet. I'll bet you that, after finishing Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think, you will have a brief head-scratching moment when you think "Well, yeah. I knew all that. Sheesh. I just blew 35 bucks." A few moments later it will dawn on you that while, yes, you did somehow know most of what Krug says--or at least it seems you must have known it; it was all so obvious--you've never actually done much of what he suggests.

I am not a natural-born designer. Growing up in my family, I was the writer--the one who was good with words. It was my younger sister who was the artist, and heaven help us should we try to cross over into the other's territory. So no one was more surprised than me when I went into web design (well, maybe my younger sister.)

In the gloom of my CSS agony, a small bright ray of light and comfort has come to cheer me. That ray is Rachel Andrews, and if she were here I'd hug her or make her a pot roast or something.

I'm on my own when it comes to learning new software, and I've had a lot to learn. Recently I scoured Amazon and finally decided on Visual Quickstart's Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 by J. Tarin Towers. I haven't been sorry, and believe me, I've run the book through its paces.