As a back end developer trying to learn JavaScript I can't agree more. The syntax is easy enough, and once I found a decent explanation, the scoping rules make sense. But for getting an overview of the concepts and the standard way / best practices for designing the application I am often at a loss.
I cannot recommend Javascript: The Good Parts highly enough if you're trying to learn JS. It's probably the single best programming book I've ever read, in that you could very well read that and a very basic introduction (on the level of syntax) and legitimately claim to know the language.
I have had a look through that book, and it is very good one one level, but trying to get anything practical done these days seems to require JQuery, and a lot of context knowledge about the DOM.
Maybe Its just because I know the backend well enough, a switch from Perl to Python was quite effortless, but making the same jump to javascript, I find a lot more difficult.
