Doug Addison, the author of Website Cookbook, says he has written a book which he wishes he had been able to read ten years ago when he first started creating websites. And, I have to admit I agree with him when he says the book is a one-stop source of answers to the questions that come up when building a website. I decided to delve a little deeper than normal into this book because I too started building websites about ten years ago ...

When I open a technical book I automatically flip to the Table of Contents and almost never read from cover to cover but jump about from topic to topic to find answers to immediate questions I have. When I started reading the TOC for this book I decided that perhaps a cover to cover read was in order in this case. Why? Because from the first chapter the headings caught my attention. Lets take a look at the first chapter, Page Design and Navigation, and you'll see what I mean:

• Choosing between a flexible and fixed layout
• Creating a color scheme
• Making room for all your navigation
• Designing pages for advertisements
• Expanding your website
• Adding background images
• Creating breadcrumb links
• Creating a link menu to other pages
• Creating navigation that does not link to itself

Interesting huh. There is a lot of depth there and I found myself wanting to read everything in that Chapter.

The book covers everything from interacting with visitors, to formatting graphics, to website promotion, to e-commerce websites. As I said, a lot of depth. The author annecdotes personal experience to make the text interesting and informative and uses a style which makes you think he is sitting right beside you, offering advice. I like Doug Addison's style alot and found the book refreshing.

If you're looking for a book that offers both solutions AND examples on designing and maintaining your own website ... then this could be the book for you. A definite thumbs up from me.