Smashing Magazine is among the design community’s most revered online bibles and this month, they’re back with an excellent second book, putting their finest design wisdom in print.

The Smashing Book #2 is a treasure trove of best practices, practical insight and rich visual inspiration for modern web design.

Each of the ten chapters, contributed by a different expert, tackles a specific hot point in design, from typography to mobile experiences to the psychology of web design, and features stunning exclusive full-page, full-color illustrations by Australian artist Yiying Lu, of Fail Whale fame, for a total of 360 gorgeous, insightful pages.

True to the magazine’s social web roots, the book even features the the names of readers.

You can sample its goodness with a free chapter, Visible vs. Invisible Design (PDF), by Francisco Inchauste.

But perhaps most interestingly, for us at least, The Smashing Book #2 was published completely independently and is only available online, through Smashing‘s own site — another sign of the publishing times, adding to the rapid decentralization and democratization of the book business.