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I have been using CSS for a while now and I figured it's time to catch up on some more reading about it. I already read CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions and I was wondering if there is a good book that contains some of the best techniques for using CSS.

Are there books out there that's the de-facto standard for describing best practices, design methodologies, and other helpful information on CSS? What about that book makes it special?

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Welcome to Programmers! Why not ask your CSS questions directly on Stack Overflow and fill your gaps that way? That's exactly what the site is there for. :) Building lists of books is generally against our policies here unless you're asking for canonical references rather than just a list of everyone's favourite books. I've made some edits to your question to hopefully head it that way. – Anna Lear♦ Sep 25 '11 at 14:15
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The fact that you're actively looking for books on CSS and willing to read them is probably 95% of the battle. – Yar Sep 25 '11 at 14:20
Sigh... On the one hand, I'm tempted to post an answer for some easy karma. :) On the other hand, Anna is correct that this is off-topic here, and CSS questions do belong on SO. Sorry, but gotta flag as off-topic - try SO instead. – Cyclops Sep 25 '11 at 14:42
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@Cyclops, specific problems with CSS belong on SO, but this clearly doesn't. – Peter Taylor Sep 25 '11 at 16:45
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This isn't on-topic for Stack Overflow, and as much as I dislike these questions, book recommendations are on-topic here as long as they ask for canonical references (i.e. the edits Anna made). But generally it is better to just ask about what you're having trouble with instead of asking for a book about it. – user8 Sep 25 '11 at 21:15
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Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML is a very smooth introduction, since the authors have put quite some didactic effort into it, and show from the start how to make pages that will work correctly in any browser.

CSS - the missing manual is also quite easy to read, but still goes into depth and can be used as a reference.

This online tutorial is a must for German or French speakers, since it is very thorough and well structured.

I'm sure there are much more good books and references that I don't know of; Since I'm satisfied with the ones I listed, I didn't search further. I did come across bad books, though I can't recall their names.

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Mastery comes through putting knowledge into practice; not from further "reading".

If you really want to master CSS, then you should start working on complicated designs. One avenue is to create skins for various content management systems. After awhile you'll see the gaps in your knowledge that no book is going to point out and you'll grow.

When you get to that point, visit StackOverflow, ask your questions and answer others' questions. Sharing knowledge with your peers is one of the best way to learn.

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I agree. This is something I learned from music, you have to practice. Just look at a site and figure out how to duplicate it without looking at the CSS or structure beforehand. – jfrankcarr Sep 26 '11 at 13:49
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Agreed - play with properties like float, clear, position, overflow, margin, padding, and any other property you lay your eyes on. Several years ago, I decided I wanted to understand float and clear, so I experimented, and now I understand float and clear. – Ryan Kinal Sep 30 '11 at 22:04
@RyanKinal: exactly. I never knew exactly how doctypes played into the design until I tried out the various ones. It's amazing how such a little thing can render most of the "workarounds" unnecessary. – Chris Lively Oct 3 '11 at 1:12

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