JavaScript is the universal programming language for web browsers, and with Node, also for servers and developer tools. Since ES6, the language has greatly improved, and is easier to learn and use.

Doug Crockford is a JavaScript expert and the author of the JSON standard. He's the author of JavaScript - The Good Parts where he recommends avoiding the troublesome or difficult to understand areas of the language, and sticking to a safe subset. I can understand his points, but recent additions to JavaScript have made the book seem out of date.

Crockford was interviewed in the book Coders At Work in 2009. He seemed to promote JavaScript and complain about it at the same time, and didn't hold back his strong opinions. What is interesting is that while virtually all of his negative views about JavaScript were perfectly valid in 2009, none of them hold true today. The biggest complaints were around scope. When ES6 came out, these were addressed with let and arrow functions, which both use lexical scope. ES6 modules eliminate problems with global scope, which Crockford said was the biggest problem with the design of JavaScript.

The best resource I've found for learning and keeping up with JavaScript is Dr. Axel Rauschmayer's JavaScript for Impatient Programmers. He sits on the ECMA TC39 committee, so he's a real authority on JavaScript. He covers every aspect of the language, and introduces topics with clear explanations and examples without any unnecessary content. At nearly 800 pages, maybe "Impatient" doesn't apply here, but it's a terrific resource. The book is available online at the link above, or as an ebook.

I hope that I can be helpful with your JavaScript needs. Let me know how I can help.