24 October 2009
The first book I would recommend would be "Designing with Web Standards" by Jeffrey Zeldman. While it is not the best book in the world to get to know the actual code involved in creating a web site it is an invaluable tool for understanding the ideal mindset going in to a project.
Why you should do things in certain ways and why other styles have their drawbacks.

I have also found that the books published under the names of

"Sams: Learn [Insert Topic Here] in 24 hours/21days" are well written and contain a fountain of information.

Finally on the subject of CSS you cannot go wrong if you get any of the books written by Eric Meyer which many have called the "Godfather of CSS"

24 October 2009
I have found a company called sitepoint to be a great resource for how to books, I have many and am constantly thumbing through them and picking up new things or new ideas.

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/

I hope that helps.

Alan Fair

25 October 2009
If you are a beginner and you really want to know the entire world of web design and web development are the following books:

Building Web Sites for Dummies by Doug Sahlin and Claudia Snell. This book has nine books in one with the most extensive knowledge of web design for beginners.

Word Press for Dummies by Lisa Sabin Wilson. This book talks about designing websites and forums using Word Press, a simple programming language for beginners.

One Hour Web Site by Michael Utvich, Ken Milhous, Yana Beylinson. This book talks about the easiest way to design websites. The book even comes with a CD containing 120 professional web templates and skins for easy programming.

26 October 2009
Just today I filled out a questionare about this http://www.cajebo.com/bookshelf/ she is trying to get together a list of the most important books for designers to have read. You could keep an eye out for her results, should be a nice roundup of designers who have filled out their picks.

I do however agree with previous answers, both "Designing with Web Standards" and sitepoints "everything you know about css is wrong" are great books.

19 November 2009
I find the books in the Sitepoint library to be quite good and they are normally running some pretty good deals. http://www.sitepoint.com/books/

19 November 2009
Following on from the previous answer, I would also reccomend books from sitepoint (http://www.sitepoint.com). In particular I have found the following very useful and interesting:

The CSS Anthology
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
The Art and Science of CSS

23 November 2009
Steven Krug has written an amazing book called "Don't Make Me Think".

Visit his website at http://www.sensible.com/ and buy it if you want a great resource on how to build a website with real usability in mind!

6 December 2009
1. Web Design: Navigation

23 December 2009
I'd recommend that you avoid simply reading and focusing on one particular book. Instead I'd probably persuade you to start with a few different web based tutorials.

Different people learn better from different writing styles, and one persons recommendation of a book may not be what suits you best.

Try a few quick and simple guides from different websites (google "basic html tutorials" etc), and see if you can get started this way.

You'll probably find that you can learn much quicker and easier by using lots of different guides from all over the internet, focusing on different key areas.

Give yourself a small basic website to construct at the same time - when I first started off I taught myself the basics by learning as I went along.

Most of all, good luck!

12 January 2010
As well as the many how-to manuals out there of technical specs I would also recommend:

Designing Web Usability by Jakob Neilson
Don't Make Me Think by Steven Krug

13 January 2010
I would Recommend
www.smashingmagazine.com

A solid place to start for all things web design!! they have also just published a book however this does not focus on the Code side more so design and development theory and good practice this is quite a good read also the blog has an endless supply of INVALUABLE information for the beginner and the professional alike

15 January 2010
The first book I ever picked up was Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. It's actually a quite good series of books continuing on to javascript and php and the like.

16 January 2010
http://www.sitepoint.com/books

you can refer this URL and get your things done. Many Recommend the same link...me too

21 January 2010
I would recommend Elizabeth Castro's "HTML, XHTML and CSS":

http://www.amazon.com/HTML-XHTML-Sixth-Elizabeth-Castro/dp/0321430840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264034478&sr=8-1

Actually a lot of books in the Visual Quickstart Guide series are really good. I like how they only discuss 1 topic per page and provide lots of examples.

22 January 2010
You can find most of what you are looking for free on the internet.

I would recommend looking on the net before heading for a book as books can tend to be dated and use old methods.

I would recommend looking here:
http://www.w3schools.com