Question: What's a good book, or a good way to learn HTML, XHTML, and CSS? I recently graduated from school and I only know Java, and C++.

I would like to learn some web development so I am looking for some good books and resources.

Answer: 
If you know programming languages like Java, then I'd recommend checking out the [HTML4 spec](http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/) on the W3C site.

It is as close as you'll come to the official docs.

I'd also recommend learning the differences between HTML and XHTML, why XHTML has no benefits to today's web (IE, content types, error handling too unforgiving) and also I'd look into HTML5, just to keep current.

Here is a [quick overview](http://jwinblad.com/webprogramming/html.php) of differences between HTML and XHTML that I found whilst surfing [Jessica's](https://stackoverflow.com/users/272208/jessica) [website](http://jwinblad.com/).
If you're looking for reference information, [W3 Schools](http://www.w3schools.com/) is a great place to start. [Smashing Magazine](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/) is great for pretty much everything to do with web development. I'd also recommend [A List Apart,](http://www.alistapart.com/) which often has great articles about some of the more difficult CSS concepts. And last, but certainly not least, I'd check out the articles on [24 ways](http://24ways.org); while they only have 24 updates every year (in December), they are written by some of the best people in the industry.

Ans since you're interested in web development, you'll probably end up wanting to learn some Javascript as well. ppk's site [quirksmode.org](http://www.quirksmode.org) is a great place for that.

Well, I hope this can be some help to you, and wish you best of luck. Also, of course, you can always ask any question that you have here at Stack Overflow.