Thanks!

O'Reilly offers the book for sale in a variety of DRM-free ebook formats if you prefer to read it that way: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805531/

My Ruby book is explicitly modelled after K&R. The JavaScript book is also, though not quite so obviously. If you just look at the first 300 pages, the comparison would be more apt. Try to imagine K&R expanded to cover all of the major libraries that C developers have to use today. That would come out at over 1100 pages, too.

After you get through the first 5 chapters, you can kind of pick and choose what to read. Most chapters are 30-50 pages, and you should be able to work through them in an hour or two. Chapter 6, for example, covers objects (including ES5 extensions) comprehensively in 35 pages, and you'd probably come away after reading it feeling like you learned enough to make it worth your time.

Thanks! That was my goal when writing it. It is about language mastery. Not so that you can answer quizzes about obscure corner cases, but so that you can program more effectively. Its like adding tools to your toolbox, and keeping them sharp.

Dojo and YUI are too big to cover in one chapter. I mention them, but do not cover them. jQuery is small enough to cover comprehensively in this book. And it is probably more popular than the larger alternatives, so I covered it. Many readers will find that chapter quite helpful. Those who don't want to use jQuery can skip the chapter. I don't use jQuery elsewhere in the book. (The jQuery material is also available in standalone form as jQuery Pocket Reference.) There is just one chapter on server-side JavaScript. Half covers Rhino and half covers Node. Just enough to give readers a taste of server-side programming. And the reference sections don't include reference material for Rhino or Node.

Mod the parent up. This is funny! :-) I wish I could have stopped after the first edition!