I'm mostly interested in presenting images and creating image galleries.

Is JQuery the best library for this, or would Prototype be better?

Which one can be learned more easily? (Don't really want to become a programmer).

I'm currently working my way through the Javascript/JQuery book by David Sawyer McFarland ("Missing Manuals"), but the book is bad. It doesn't explain anything and just throws code at you.

So I might need another Javascript book, so I'd probably open to use another library if this would make sense.

If you're not interested in doing programming, jQuery has a lot more plugins for it to do what you're describing. You might want to just start here: http://plugins.jquery.com/ to find what you're doing.

Books about JavaScript and jQuery are always going to "throw code at you", because that's what JavaScript books are intended for: to better understand the programming language of JavaScript + the framework.

I want the code.

But I need to know why it's written this way, and not in another. To get the logic behind it, the grammar, the syntax.

The "Missing Manuals" book just gives me the code and then says what it does.

But it doesn't tell me why it does what it does. It doesn't give me any explanations.

Maybe it's not a book meant for beginners. It's hard for me to say since I haven't read it.

Anyway, I heartily recommend jQuery, it is easier to use and has animation built into its core, unlike Prototype (which does do effects with Scriptaculous, however).

Prototype is slightly faster in execution because it extends native objects (using the prototype property, hence the name). Prototype is very powerful but it has less core features which is why it is not as popular. It also doesn't have the community or documentation that jQuery enjoys, which means it is harder to find information about. There are still plenty of professionals that prefer it.

If you start to enjoy this stuff, don't think you're limited to just those two. There are plenty of very good frameworks, such as Dojo, YUI, Mootools, and extJS.

Yes, the book is for beginners.

The author could have easily put in some good explanations about the Javascript way to program. But this is a lot of work and needs thinking.

It's easier to write chapters like "What is a computer program" which is really part of the book. It's a common problem that book authors explain what is easy to explain, but not what is necessary to explain.

Anyway, I'll stay with JQuery. There are quite a few mistakes and errata in this book, so I'll probably get another Javascript book. And then there are the tutorials on the Jquery website.