My first book in 20 books, 20 weeks is HTML 4 Unleashed by Rick Darnell et al.
I bought this at a remainder bookshop (i.e. one which sells books that a publisher wants to clear) in Lytham St Annes for £10 in the late 1990s. I taught myself HTML from this book, which at over 1000 pages was pretty comprehensive. This was before the existence of sites like MDN or useful search engines – if you wanted a reference guide you had to buy a physical book.
In terms of the impact on me, I built a commercial website during work experience in my last year at high school based on the knowledge I gained from this book. Although I wasn’t allowed to be paid for work experience, it led directly to my first paid project in 2000. With no reference on how much to charge, I came up with the figure of £20 per page (the website was 8 pages, so £160 in total) – a princely sum at the time for a 16 year old who had no qualifications, and probably more per hour than my parents earned.
I kept doing web development during my time at college and university, including summer jobs. My first full time role after graduating was managing a web application which transacted all my employer’s business, and I now run a freelance web development business. So this book kick-started my entire career, which is still going in the same sector.
Purely based on knowledge that I apply at work, this book was probably a better investment than my computer science degree. Whilst I don’t regret doing my degree – I enjoyed my time at university and met people who later offered me work – I rarely use the knowledge I gained in it.
HTML 4 Unleashed is a strong contender for the book that had the most impact on my life. Not bad for £10.