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 are interested in online resources, The [SitePoint Reference](http://reference.sitepoint.com/) seems good. It covers HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The information seems clear, and there is the capability to add user notes as well.

If you prefer printed material, I started out with HTML for Dummies - despite the common opinion on For Dummies books, they are actually useful for picking up a new subject. I keep handy the HTML/XHTML Definitive Guide and the CSS Definitive Guide - both from O'Reilly. Those two are good for references.

For JavaScript, I recommend Simply JavaScript from SitePoint, and Dom Scripting from Friends of Ed.
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/).