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Madison Kanna
Madison Kanna

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at madisonkanna.com

Join our JavaScript book club

Are you learning JavaScript in 2020? Or are you a JavaScript developer who wants to level up his or her skills?

Edit: the book club reached 1,000 members in a day (and growing) and in addition to the club, we're now hosting community events that are free and open to developers of all experience levels. Join the discord below or follow our Twitter account to attend an event.

Starting January 19th, I’m hosting an online JavaScript book club that is free and open for all to attend. We will be reading the free You Don’t Know JS series. We'll be kicking off the club with reading the first book in the series: Get Started. We will always meet online (on Zoom) so you can join from anywhere in the world.

So... why should you join?

Whether you're already working as a JavaScript developer or more of a beginner to JS, you're probably working on leveling up your understanding of JS. Instead of doing this alone, we'll meet weekly and learn together as we read You Don't Know JS--a free book series that is considered one of the best resources on JS.

Here are the next steps if you're interested in joining the club:

  1. Join our email list to get your invitation to the club by email, and to get updates on future books or community events. (https://twitter.com/Madisonkanna) and I'll send you the link again.
  2. Vote for what time you'd like the club to meet at. The club will meet on Sundays but the time chosen will be based on attendees availability. Once you join the discord, you'll find the pinned poll to vote on a time.
  3. Introduce yourself in the discord, and start reading chapter 1.
  4. Remember that you don't need to attend every meeting! Just make it when you can.

If you're still thinking of joining but would like more details, here's some more info on the book club.

When you think of a book club, you usually think of people meeting to discuss a book. Instead of only having discussions, our book club will have themes to each week so we can actively learn together. We'll alternate between discussion week and teach week.

For discussion week, we’ll break up into small groups and each person will share either one thing they learned and a comment or question they have on it, or one thing they struggled with in the chapter. This will give us the opportunity to learn from each other and share our takeaways or struggles with the chapter. For discussion weeks, you'll just need to read the chapter and come up with a comment or question before the meeting.

For teach week, you read the current chapter and then explain just 1 thing you learned from that chapter with a small demo. On the call, we’ll break up into small groups of 5 and present our demos to each other. Each demo can be presented in 4-6 minutes with a minute or two for questions or more comments. This will allow us to practice our coding by creating a demo of what we learned, and cement our learning as we teach it to others.

You might be thinking... OMG! A demo? No way! That's scary and might be a lot of work.

Okay, hold on. The point of the book club is to have a free, friendly and low-pressure place to learn JS with others. We also want to make the book club as valuable to you as possible. And a great way to learn is to teach others what you learned. This will cement your understanding of what you learned.

Our teach week meetings will never be about pouring hours into creating a fancy demo, or about doing scary presentations. Our teach week meeting will be about taking just 1 thing you learned from the current chapter and briefly explaining it in a few sentences or a few lines of code. Or even just one sentence, or one line of code! Did you learn how to createn a object? Share it in a sentence! Did you learn the difference between const and let? Share it!

By taking turns sharing what we learn, we'll gain a better understanding of what we're learning. For our teach week call, you can come to the call with a small demo (such as a line or two of code on Repl.it) and explain what that code means to others. Or if you'd like, simply grab a bit of code or a concept straight from the chapter and explain it to. For teach week, you'll read the current chapter and then pick a concept or idea from the chapter that you'll (briefly!) explain to your fellow book club attendees.

If there’s one thing I learned in the last three years as I went from beginner to working as a JavaScript developer, it is that having a better understanding of the foundations of JS is helpful—no matter what experience level you’re at. It's one thing to read a book and talk about it. It’s another to present a small demo and teach what you learned. You’ll get feedback on what you learned from others, and you'll grow your skills as a communicator as you talk about code to others.

By doing this on our calls, we'll grow as JavaScript developers—-together. :) Our meetings will happen every Sunday, and never go over 1 hour. We’ll meet live on Zoom, where we can talk to each other via video and break up into smaller groups from there. This club will be a place to learn with each other and ask the "stupid" questions--even though there is no such thing. :)

There is no obligation to attend the book club every week. If you can’t make it one week, simply catch up on reading and join us the next week. I've also added a doc with more details on the club.

I look forward to seeing you in the club!

Top comments (37)

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mohammad_makeen profile image
Mohammad Makeen

Is this book is considered for beginner's level in which for a person, who has little knowledge about Javascript, and did not apply it in a practical way?

I have read that some people consider the book for developers who have knowledge about Javascript before and the series will help them to correct some aspects they have about Javascript. Is this true?

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Hey there!
Great question! I believe since we are starting with the first book (Get Started, an intro to JS) I think it is suitable for a beginner level!

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mohammad_makeen profile image
Mohammad Makeen

Thank you for replaying. Got it!

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Hey again! Actually, I need to correct myself here. :) The book is best for those who have some Js experience. If you’ve written JS before that’s helpful!

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mohammad_makeen profile image
Mohammad Makeen

Thank you for your honesty. What about if my JS skills is not that good? Is it still good to me?

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Our club has now started community events, which will be monthly online meetups, and many of them will be for complete beginners with no previous experience! So if you’re new, you should still check us out. The community is free 😊

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mohammad_makeen profile image
Mohammad Makeen

Thank you for letting me know. I really appreciate it.

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thenewmona profile image
Ramona Saintandre

Hi @Madison

Thanks so much for starting.
I have been trying so hard to grasp JS, and not sure what it is that I am not grasping about it.
I was wondering, will the meetups always be on Sunday, and also what time.
I am in EST.
Thanks

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Hey there! Thanks so much for your interest in joining the club, we would be glad to have you!
The first book will definitely always be on Sunday! Once we read the second JS book, it might be on a different day, we are all going to vote.
As for the time, we are currently voting in a poll on what time we will meet! Right now it looks like the most votes is Sundays at 2pm PST / 5pm EST.
Times will be finalized on Tuesday!
Thanks :)

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riazosama profile image
Osama Riaz

Great stuff. I've been working with JavaScript and still it amazes me sometimes (Guess I'm not the only one). Would love to learn more from all and share what I know.

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Wonderful! I hope you can join the club!

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riazosama profile image
Osama Riaz

Already a member

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Fantastic :)

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fernastereo profile image
Fernando Cueto

Hi Madison, it's a great idea this JS book club for those who are starting with JS like me. Thanks, I hope I can learn a lot from all you guys.

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gafaba profile image
Gafaba.com

Thank you

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Quite welcome!

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vjgonzalezg profile image
VG

Hello Madison and the community. I apreciated this kind of initiatives from you. Thanks a lot!

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Thank you!

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nicoh profile image
Nico Hevia

Awesome, looking forward to join the club. Already joined Discord.

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Nico, stoked to have you in the club! :)

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ryanfoo profile image
Ryan Foo

Look forward to joining the book club and participating!

Thank you for starting this!

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Look forward to learning with you!

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mlimonczenko profile image
Miranda

I'd love to join! And I'd love to blog about it if that's okay. 😊 My blog is Books on Code. Very in theme.

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

Hey Miranda! I'm so glad you're joining, excited to learn with you. Of course that'd be amazing if you blogged about it! Books on Code looks just incredible, btw!

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hugoliconv profile image
Hugo

I would love to join the club mostly to improve my English and meet new people.

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madisonkanna profile image
Madison Kanna

We look forward to having you in the club! :)