HTML5 Pocket Reference by Jennifer Robbins; O’Reilly Media

HTML5 Pocket Reference is a handy resource for both rookie and experienced web developers who work with the shiny new version of HTML. The book starts with a quick overview of HTML5. The meat of the 184-paged book is the alphabetic listing of all HTML5 elements and attributes and concise explanations about them.

HTML5 has taken over a decade in the making and it is still evolving. There are two organizations, W3C & WHATWG, maintaining slightly different HTML specifications. Not all browsers support all of the HTML5 tags. There is still debate regarding the supported video formats for the video element. No single video file format is supported by all browsers. Inspite of all this, HTML5 holds promise. If you've only worked with HTML 4, you will be surprised with all that is new in HTML5. It includes a bunch of new APIs (Application Programming Interfaces standardize tasks that traditionally required proprietary plug-ins or custom programming) and a slew of new elements and attributes. Elements that weren't in HTML 4 are clearly marked out.

This reference book doesn't cover HTML5 APIs. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a "pocket" Reference. As HTML5 is yet to become a Recommendation and due to the evolving nature of the topic, some details in the book MAY change.

I loved reading this book that I received through the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program and I will be referring it quite a lot. For anyone with an interest in building HTML5 web pages, this is a good book to own - whether you buy, beg, borrow or steal it.

Related: Free 42 episode video series on HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript for Absolute Beginners