This is a web book, designed to be read on the web (with or without an internet connection). So you can start reading now. But if you’d prefer to have a copy of this book in another format, you can download a PDF in portrait format (7MB) or a PDF in landscape format (19.9MB). There’s also an EPUB version (4.4MB) and a MOBI version (10.4MB).
Or you can listen to individual MP3 files: Introduction, Foundations, Materials, Visions, Languages, Layers, Steps, and Challenges.
Read this book, @adactio states in more eloquent words than I could ever muster the histories and philosophies of what makes something webby
There is nobody I trust more on matters of web design than @adactio. I have read some of this book; it is excellent, beautiful and free.