In 1994, Hakon Wium Lie proposed the concept of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to the world, moving web design one small, significant step closer to perfection (read a brief history here).

For the virgin, the W3C has a short tutorial for those of us who have never used CSS before. There’s also a more robust tutorial (by the W3C) here, and another by The Web Design Group here, all of which are well worth bookmarking.

In addition to the above, html.net’s CSS section is also a good place to go to, especially since it’s HTML tutorial is only a click away.

For an actual reference you can touch and feel, nothing beats The Ultimate CSS Reference by Tommy Olson and Paul O’Brien. While you’re there, check out some of Sitepoint’s other priceless titles

For inspiration, there’s cssBeauty, and the CSS Zen Garden.

And as usual, Smashing Magazine has a plethora of tools, tutorials, and techniques the wanna-be CSS expert should not live without (of course, these are not the only CSS materials they have available).