I am a newbie and want to learn web design and html. I believe books are the best way to do so. But I actually do not way which books I should read at first to get some basic idea. It would be really helpful if somebody helped me out. Thanks.
I have never read a single book about HTML ever and i would say i know html pretty much like the back of my hand. The best way i would say learn is online tutorials, also open up frontpage/dreamweaver. Add certain features, changes colours/texts etc and view the code. See how your changes affect the code. Then move onto more advanced features. If you have website design in your head, try and create that from scratch rather than the basic "hello world" tutorials.
like alexj17 ive never opened up a html book, There are some great online tuts though try googling html tutorial. If all else fails find some simple webpages and look at the source code and experiment with your own tags/page.
Though not a book, it's an online tutorial and a good place to learn HTML as well as other web languages. You can use the navigation to your right, and learn all the different aspects of HTML. http://www.tizag.com/htmlT/
Honestly, most books on the subject will be pretty good, cover the same areas, etc. Some i'd recomend: Budd, A. 2006. CSS mastery: advanced web standards solutions. USA: Apress. Freeman, E. and Freeman, E. 2005. Head first HTML with CSS & XHTML. USA: O'Reilly. Griffiths, P. 2007. HTML dog: the best-practice guide to XHTML & CSS. USA: New Riders.
You're going to want to read Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd [sitepoint.com], Designing With Web Standards, 2nd Edition by Jeffrey Zeldman [zeldman.com] and Don't Make Me Think, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug [sensible.com]. Do NOT use sites like tizag or w3schools.com because the content on those sites are often inaccurate or just flat out wrong at times. Furthermore, w3schools.com has NOTHING to do with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) either. [Disclosure: I am an Advisor on the Design Team at the SitePoint forums - I was NOT compensated in any way, shape, or form whatsoever for recommending the HTML book by Ian Lloyd.]
I found W3schools to be fairly accurate, never had a problem. I would check it out just because they have that awesome TryIt Editor. And the quizzes are pretty awesome.
Sitepoint books are excellent and they have many. Use a firefox browser and download the web developer and firebug plugins. These plugin are awesome for web developers. Although, these books and fancy plugins will help you hone your skills but the best way to learn is through trial and error. Good luck!