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/).
I'm working through Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. I have found it to be quite useful in staring me off with these technologies.