Ted Gioia’s History of Jazz is clear, concise, and comprehensive. From the prehistory of jazz to the swing era to the rise of big band to the pathbreaking of bebop style, Gioia’s analytic force captures images of jazz figures on the pages. Jelly Roll Morton places his pistol on the piano; Louis Armstrong drops the music sheet during a recording session; Charlie Parker drinks his life away; Miles Davis makes history with the recording of Kind of Blue. This book is a required reading for my jazz history class, and I can see why my instructor, Brian Mann, selected it, and it is highly recommended for those who are interested in learning the remarkable stories behind an American original music.

James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is an intriguing story of a talented ragtime pianist and an outsider (an ex-colored who does not belong to either black or white) looking into the world of both races, and not sure which one to be identified with. After witnessing a tragical incident, he decided to live his life as a white man because of the “shame at being identified with a people that could with impunity be treated worse than animals.” Even though this book is also a required text for my jazz course, it has nothing to do with jazz (more of a race issue). Still, the novel is short and compelling.

Dan Cederholm knows exactly what Web designers need, and he writes for them. I praised his previous book, Web Standard Solutions, as not only a markup and style handbook, but also an accessibility guide. With his latest publication, Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS, he takes accessibility a step further by designing with flexibility or in his own words, “being prepared for whatever is thrown at your design.”

Forward-thinking design is the approach the book takes on. As Web designers, we need to share the control of our sites with the users. For example, allow users to resize their text if they desired. By using percentages, ems or keywords instead of pixels enable Internet Explorer users to increase or decrease the default text sizes. In the first chapter, Cederholm suggests setting keywords for the body text, and then use percentages for the headings when styling the type size in CSS to accommodate IE browsers. Although the method is bulletproofed, a bit of hacking is required. To set the text sizes to display consistently across browsers with hack free, I suggest using percentage for the body and ems for the headings.

Other than the “Flexible Text” approach, I find his tips and tricks throughout the book to be useful and adaptable. The “Scalable Navigation” technique is not only accessible and easy to modify, but also saves bandwidths because of the lightweight markups. The “Expandable Rows” and “Indestructible Boxes” methods give the site invisible, extra spaces to prevent unpredictable scenarios. The strategies for “No Images? No CSS? No Problem” is seemed to be simple, but no less valuable. I am sure many designers wouldn’t be thinking of styling background colors to ensure readability incase users turn off images to speed up the loading process. How could we when we have like million other things to worry about? So this chapter serves as a great reminder for that sort-of-minor-but-important stuff, and be sure to check out the bulletproof tools (Favlets, Web Developer Extension, Web Accessibility Toolbar, and Validator) listed as well.

Once again, Cederholm’s solid writing combined with his easy-to-follow instructions complemented by clear visual presentations make Bulletproof Web Design an essential guide for designers who wish to create Web sites that would always look good under any circumstances. Even though he delves into the “Fluid Layouts” approach, I still feel the book needed a chapter on zoomable layout, which is one of the most flexible and accessible methods I have come to appreciate, to be completed.

Why universal usability is as essential as the visual layout on the Web? Why keeping the site clean and simple is important? Why should we replace graphic with text navigation when possible? How to create forms that are painless to fill out by both visual and nonvisual users? Web designers who are unsure what the answers are to any of these questions should take a look at Sarah Horton’s Access by Design: a Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers.

By eliminating the technical practices, Horton allows her book to focus on the design principles; therefore, anyone (with or without technical skills) who wishes to learn Web accessibility is welcome. With simple language complemented by clear visual illustrations, she walks readers through everything they need to know (including text, images, color, forms, links, lists, audio, and video) when creating universal usability for the Web. She points out what to do and what to avoid when designing for maximum accessibility, and shows both good and bad examples to back up her cases. For instance, nonvisual users may have a hard time distinguishing between parent and child items in compound lists; therefore, she suggests to either use ordered lists or break the compound list into sections with appropriate headings.

Although Horton favors flexible over fixed layouts, she does a thorough job of explaining the pros and cons of both designs. While the fixed design does not expand when users increase the text size, the flexible design causes readability issue with long lines of text. From my own experience, using em measurements is the best solution to accommodate readability. The default is presented in a fixed layout, but the text and the layout will expand or condense when users adjust the text size, and that is “where designers and users share control of its design.”

Access by Design offers nothing new on Web accessibility, but Horton’s clear and concise approach makes the book an important reading for Web designers and developers, especially the newcomers. Read it, learn it, and keep it by our side when working on Web sites.

Had an easy weekend. Spent time alone and got through both Ashley Kahn’s A Love Supreme : The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album and Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. Enjoyed both books. Kahn’s writing, especially on the sessions of recording the pieces, gives readers deeper appreciations on two of the most influential jazz albums. These two CDs are back on heavy rotations. Kind of Blue is for relaxing, and A Love Supreme is for spiritual uplifting.

With gorgeous designs, insightful essays, and comprehensive explanations, Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type is not only an essential but also a pleasurable reading on typography. The book is an excellent accompaniment to a course on type design because Lupton’s balances the theory and practice, at the same time, she manages to keep the texts short, straightforward, and accessible.

Divided into three main categories, Thinking With Type walks readers from the fundamental concepts of “Letter” (including size, classification, and families) to the arrangements of “Text” (such as kerning, tracking, and spacing) to the visual layouts using “Grid” (exploring single and multiple columns, modular, and data tables). The structures, illustrations, and exercises are well crafted to help readers enhance their use of type. While most typographic books cover mainly on print design, Thinking With Type deals with both print and web. Many beautiful screenshots of web sites are showcased throughout the book as well as a short coverage of “Web Accessibility” and “Web Hierarchy.”

Thinking With Type is a book that could be read from cover to cover because of the slim in size and simplified in language. Even the “Appendix” is filled with useful information, especially the free advices: “think more, design less,” “spend more, buy less,” and especially for screen designers, “make it bigger.” So buy it, study it, enjoy it, and most importantly, apply it. Still not convinced? Visit ThinkingWithType.com for excerpts.

The joyful part of web design is when the final Cascading-Style-Sheets-driven layout looks exactly like the Photoshop mockup; however, the joy ends as soon as the site goes into Browser Cam, and that’s when the hair-pulling part comes in. The beautiful site is no longer beautiful in Netscape 4.0. The main content is dropped below, instead of beside, the navigation in Internet Explorer 5.5. Why are there a few pixels off in IE 6.0?

After freaking out over the screenshots provided by Browser Cam, the next thing to do is revisit the CSS file and search the web for ways to fix the bugs. Getting frustrated because there isn’t a central place to find all the hacks. Fortunately, Joseph W. Lowery recognizes it, and puts together an accessible reference for designing cross-browser compatible websites called CSS Hacks & Filters: Making Cascading Style Sheets Work.

Because of the concise explanations, clear visual demonstrations, and well-organized contents, CSS Hacks & Filters is the book to have on hand when testing and debugging web pages and CSS files. From filtering CSS for older or hiding it from newer browsers to integrating layouts to building menus to troubleshooting, this is a one shop for all CSS-workarounds resource. Every hack or filter we need is well documented and usually accompanied by a web address if it was pulled from a particular site.

The strength of the book is Lowery’s easy-to-follow writing style. The language is simple and the instructions are comprehensible. For instance, the step-by-step breakdowns of the commented backslash hack for Mac IE is easy to understand, and the simple method to wrap texts around a cursive image is easy to pull off. Lowery is also a Dreamweaver expert; therefore, Dreamweaver users get a special treat at the last two chapters.

I am a designer, not a hacker, and hacking CSS is not my style. I prefer clean and lean style sheets, but in order to design a beautiful table-less layout website to work consistently on various browsers, hacking CSS is inevitable. Until CSS works the way it is supposed to, CSS Hacks & Filters not only saves the designers as well as developers tremendous time, headache, and effort, but also helps crafting their websites to reach wider audiences.

If I have to learn CSS from scratch, I would start with Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos’s Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web. CSS is easy to learn, but to understand how to use it correctly is a bit challenging. In order to take full advantage of CSS, designers need to know how each element was built, and what purpose it serves. Who else can show us these things better than CSS creators themselves?

The best part about this book is not how to use CSS, but how it was created to handle certain tasks. For example, the em unit is developed to make scalable style sheets. The creators describe the thinking behind it, and prove why we should always use ems to set font sizes. Their clarification on using ems over pixels is making much more sense to me than ever before. The short background on em is interesting to read, and clearing up some confusion as well.

Even though the book does not delve into advanced techniques such as styling a menu or design a complex tableless layout, it nails the fundamental concepts to the ground. From “CSS Selectors” to “Space Inside Boxes” to “Relative and Absolute Positioning” to “Colors,” the explanations are clear and the theories behind the elements are invaluable. The authors also remind us to “know when to stop” by keeping our styles clean and simple.

Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web is an important book to learn CSS the proper way. With the third edition, the book covers all the features in version 2.1, making it the definitive guide. Even though I have been using CSS heavily in my work, I still find the theories (what each element was created to do) to be intriguing. My favorite reading is the chapter on “the CSS Saga,” in which the authors give a brief history on CSS and how browsers play an important role in it. Believe it or not, Microsoft Internet Explore 3.0 was the first browser that supported CSS.

After Charles Wyke-Smith answered a lengthy question on CSS, his friend told him, “You should put this all in a book – I’d buy it.” Through his connection with an editor at New Riders, Wyke-Smith landed himself a book deal.

Like many CSS books on the market, Stylin’ with CSS introduces web standards, XHTML, and of course CSS. Wyke-Smith explains how CSS works, how to style text, how to create page layout, and so forth. Since the book offers nothing new or unique, isn’t it a bit too late to come out with a beginner CSS book at this time?

In Wyke-Smith’s introduction he writes, “Stylin’ with CSS is all about designing and building Web pages that look stylish and professional…” Yet the examples provided in the book are anything but those two elements. Although the book is not about design, and the main focus is on CSS, the author should at least try to create something visually appealing to attract the designers. The example does not have to be like a Zen Garden piece, but a simple layout with a nice use of type is good enough. Unfortunately, the screenshots provided in the book turn me away. The pages look as if they were designed in 1994 – when the author first started designing for the web.

If Stylin’ was published a year ago, it might make some impact, but it is too late now since there is an array of well-written CSS books already published. From a designer standpoint, I have no need for this book. Why should I learn to create something that does not pull me in? Besides, the raw tutorials covered in the book could be found online.

Web feeds have changed the way I visit websites. I just subscribe to my favorite places and watch new contents roll into my desktop aggregator (NetNewsWire). Feeds have not only saved me time, but also kept me on top of things. Why do I need TV when I can get the latest news from CNN delivered right to my computer? I no longer need to check Zeldman.com every morning to be disappointed that he only writes once in a while. Zeldman is still “da man” though.

Even though I offer a content syndication feed (RSS 2.0) on this site, I never have to write a code for it. WordPress does all the magic for me, and I am grateful for that. I probably won’t ever have to hand rolled a feed, but it is still helpful to know how to produce one. I picked up Ben Hammersley’s book, and it is all that I need to get myself familiar with the development process.

Coming straight from O’Reilly’s press, Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom is guaranteed to get readers roll up their sleeves and start rolling their feeds with its slim in volume, clear in explanation, and concise in coding approach. Whether developers need to roll out an Atom, RSS 1.0, or RSS 2.0, they can find the solutions in this book. Feeds can be created with PHP, Perl using XML::RSS, or Ruby. Hammersley offers step-by-step guides for all three. Besides the coding, the most important lesson from this book is the understanding of the differences between various RSS’s and Atom. Readers need to know the standards, and how they work in order to parse them. While feeds are mostly found in blogs, chapter 10 (“Unconventional Feeds”) shows what feeds can do beyond the blog community, such as Amazon Wishlist to RSS, Google to RSS with SOAP, the W3C Validator to RSS and Podcast Weather Forecasts.

We have a fantastic web developer in-house who I turn to all the time when I need PHP help, but if my boss ask me to create an RSS feed for no reason, I won’t pull my hair out. I just snatch the feed from WordPress, and modify it to suit our need. Why not create it from scratch? Why should I? Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom already gave me what I need to know. Since I already know what I am doing, modifying codes are faster for me than starting from scratch. It’s all about speed and precision, baby.

In his book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of Hip-Hop Generation, Jeff Chang drops it like it’s hot. From MCing to DJing to b-boying to graffiti writing, Chang’s insightful knowledge of hip-hop culture combined with his passion for rap music make this book an important read. For those, including me, who not only love the art, but also want to learn what it was like living in the Bronx – birthplace of hip-hop – during the ’70s, this book will guarantee to supply a vivid reading experience.

The history of hip-hop is intriguing, stirring, and empowering. From the blackout riot on July 13, 1977 to the period when Clive Campbell (DJ Kool Herc) hooked up his father’s powerful system for the first time, the genuineness of Chang’s filmic structure provides readers with clear visual presentation of the subject. Whether he describes a scene of b-boy dancing or graffiti painting, his straightforward approach and natural style allow the images to be accessible.

On a personal level, I praise Chang for staying on point when he delves into the racial issue between Black American and Asian American. On his controversial “Black Korea,” Ice Cube voiced his opinion against Asians, accused the storeowners (Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Cambodian) of trying to take over the hood. Not only on this particular piece but also throughout the book, Chang is recapturing, not recreating, the chronicle of hip-hop through his extensive research and personal interviews.

Although Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is longer than 500 pages, I couldn’t stop once I started to read. Chang’s work has enriched my knowledge on hip-hop, its elements, and its political contents. Hip-hop has made its way into the colleges’ and universities’ curricula. Even a highly selective private institution like Vassar, which is dominated by a Caucasian student body, is embracing hip-hop culture by introducing Hip-hop 101 club. Therefore, I would not be surprised to see this book as part of a required reading list.