TL;DR: Try a couple of books in parallel, focusing on different levels of detail/practicality. Or, something like Javascript Patterns by Stoyan Stefano might give you a better mix of detail and practical examples to begin with than the definitive guide. It's shorter, too! :)
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, but generally a deep understanding of a language is a good goal. What I aim for when learning something technical is to maximise the number of "aha" moments per hour. But how you do this will depend on your personal learning style.
Some people like to delve into detailed documentation to understand a language's specification. If you have a strong background in computer science, or if you have learned many languages previously, this is probably ok, but not necessarily the quickest way (but could be for you).
Others prefer to start with high-level examples and working apps that give you a flavour of what you will be doing to get the job done. After that, going deeper, with more detailed explanations until finally you get to a point where you're learning the reasons why you need to do things a certain way.
Personally, I like to mix it up a little, alternating between levels and having two books on the go at once. I find it useful to have the different point of view on hand and it just keeps my interest up.
Ultimately the best thing you can do is experiment and see what suits you.
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TL;DR: Try a couple of books in parallel, focusing on different levels of detail/practicality. Or, something like Javascript Patterns by Stoyan Stefano might give you a better mix of detail and practical examples to begin with than the definitive guide. It's shorter, too! :)
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, but generally a deep understanding of a language is a good goal. What I aim for when learning something technical is to maximise the number of "aha" moments per hour. But how you do this will depend on your personal learning style.
Some people like to delve into detailed documentation to understand a language's specification. If you have a strong background in computer science, or if you have learned many languages previously, this is probably ok, but not necessarily the quickest way (but could be for you).
Others prefer to start with high-level examples and working apps that give you a flavour of what you will be doing to get the job done. After that, going deeper, with more detailed explanations until finally you get to a point where you're learning the reasons why you need to do things a certain way.
Personally, I like to mix it up a little, alternating between levels and having two books on the go at once. I find it useful to have the different point of view on hand and it just keeps my interest up.
Ultimately the best thing you can do is experiment and see what suits you.