Going Offline by Jeremy Keith

I know, I am late to the game, as Jeremy’s book called Going Offline was released in April already. I just simply never found the time to go and read it. Now, having had three weeks away and being in Italy’s Tuscany, I finally got the time to read it.

I did not expect anything else than a good read, to be honest, as I know Jeremy for quite some time now and know that he cares about what he does. Would it be running/organising events, like dConstruct or Responsive Day Out, making music with his band, or – of course – writing books and articles.

The books from A Book Apart are short books on a specific topic. Usually you can eat them within a day or two. Same with Going Offline. It took me a little more than one day to read it and even though I don’t have any clients to work for anymore, hence I am not involved in any projects, I try to keep myself up to date.

Jeremy’s way of writing certainly helps, as a specialised or technical book on a topic like Service Workers, could certainly be one, that bores you to death with dry written explanations. But Jeremy has a friendly, fresh and entertaining way of writing books. Sometimes I caught myself with a grin on my face reading things like …

Comments are a great way of leaving reminders for your future self, like Guy Pearce in Memento or Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall.

… or …

You could even write the whole thing on one line if you want to be the James Joyce of JavaScript.

… just to mention two examples.

The book starts at the very basics of working with Service Workers and gives you a really good starting point if you never done anything with Service Workers, or even have never heard about it. It also might help you to get rid of some prejudices you might have about using Service Workers, in case you have any. Jeremy divided the book into 9 chapters, starting with a basic introduction into the concept and starting with and preparing your website for Service Workers:

1. Introducing Service Workers
2. Preparing for Offline
3. Making Fetch Happen
4. Cache Me If You Can
5. Service Worker Strategies
6. Refining Your Service Worker
7. Tidying Up
8. The Offline User Experience
9. Progressive Web Apps

All chapters are coming with a lot of code examples and tips and explanations on how to get to your first Progressive Web App. No matter if your visitors are in a city with great internet connection or somewhere, where – like for me in Tuscany – is nearly no reception and no wifi.

In short: go and read Going Offline!