I am scheduled to appear for
SCJP on 11th of this month. Just wanted to share my exp. with you.
I bought two books. K&B (item # 6 in the first post) and Exam Cram.
K&B is very descriptive and explains the concepts brilliantly.
Whereas Exam cram can be considered as the jist of K&B (for that matter any certification book).
SO i used to read Examprep for each chapter (used to take 1-2 hrs) and then read the same chapter in K&B. So this way i used to have basic understanding of the chapter before starting in K&B.
I strongly believe these two books are good enough for the concepts. Besides, there are so many mock exams available on the net.