365 Days in the Computer & Technology Top 100: Jon Duckett’s HTML & CSS

 Today marks a major milestone for a favorite new book of mine, Jon Duckett’s HTML & CSS. According to Amazon’s rankings of bestsellers in their "Computers & Technology" category, this book has now been in the top 100 for 365 days or a full year. Most of that year the book has been fairly planted in the top 20, as I type this morning it’s number 11. Given how this list has become dominated by $0.99 books about ereaders and game books, that’s an amazing milestone. Congratulations to Jon for creating a lasting bestseller.

 Today marks a major milestone for a favorite new book of mine, Jon Duckett’s HTML & CSS. According to Amazon’s rankings of bestsellers in their "Computers & Technology" category, this book has now been in the top 100 for 365 days or a full year. Most of that year the book has been fairly planted in the top 20, as I type this morning it’s number 11. Given how this list has become dominated by $0.99 books about ereaders and game books, that’s an amazing milestone. Congratulations to Jon for creating a lasting bestseller.

And to be really fair to Jon, I have to say the book would have reached that milestone even faster if I could have printed enough and kept it stock. Due to a couple of out of stock glitches, his book hit this milestone even with a couple of extended "out of stock" periods. Oops.

I’ve always respected authors and their books that have this kind of longevity. I think it speaks to the value that a good book can still have. My experience on this book with Jon gives me even more respect for books like Douglas Crockford’s "JavaScript: The Good Parts" (1104 days in the top 100 as of today) or of course Kernighan & Ritchie’s "C Programming Language 2nd Edition" (1419 days in the top 100 and still going).

Those give us a target and set a high bar for us to reach for in building books of lasting value. And we do have some exciting new things planned for you to watch for.

If you haven’t seen Jon’s book (or think you don’t need it) I’d encourage you to look at some of his samples at http://www.htmlandcssbook.com/sample-chapter/ . Even if his book isn’t one you need, I’ll bet you know someone who would benefit from it as it enters year 2 of best-seller status.