best java books?

[kenji mapes]

I have a Savitch book and a Ursula Wolz textbook from school which is not too impressive..........

In your people's experiences what are the best beginner java books that really break down the concepts and lay the foundation for the beginner........

Thanks.

[madhup narain]

Refer to Herbert Schildts -Complete Reference

moreover certification books from Khalid are good too.

[A Kumar]

Hi,

The above book is a good one....

U can add these books to the list....if u are an absolute beginner to java...

Deitel & Deitel How to prgoram java

Beginning Java JDK 1.5 - Ivor Horton (Wrox publishers)

Tx

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

The JavaRanch Bunkhouse has lots of book recommendations/reviews.

[Ashok George]

hai kenji...
a few of the best best java books are
1. thinking in java-Bruce eckel
2.head first java
3.books by khalid mughal
and the java certification book by K&B
these are a few of the best books in java
also the java complete refrence is also good
but the best recomended book is thinking in java

[Martin Lerchster]

i have to say i like Java in a Nutshell form o'reilly but its more a reference than a tutorial for beginners!

[Ilja Preuss]

Moving to Bunkhouse Porch...

[Hentay Duke]

If you're just staring go through the tutorials on Sun's site, they're free and cover a lot of ground.

[kenji mapes]

Thanks. I am a neophyte somewhat, but understand many of the fundamentals. But with topics such as this, I like to know everything from every angle. So I tend to make things more complicated with my code, and was hoping to hear a few suggestions which I receieved.

I am a CS major and am taking advanced Java this semester. After taking data structures and doing abstract classes and different data structures, I realize that there is a huge void in my knowledge of Java.

I will look into all of your suggestions! Thx.

[Ashok George]

hi kenji!!!
after seeing ur reply and if u r a major in CS then defintly u shud read thinking in java by bruce ekkel
http://mindview.net/Books/TIJ/Solutions
here is the link head first java is another good book but its java proffesionals dream to read tij fully atleats once!!!

[Andrew Morris]

These were the books I found useful for learning Java:
* Herbert Schildt Java 2 A Beginner's Guide
* Cay Horstmann, " Computing Concepts with JAVA 2 Essentials"
* C. Thomas Wu An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming with JAVA
* ebook of Bruce Eckel at planetpdf
you can also practice coding online at http://www.devsquare.com
[ August 27, 2005: Message edited by: Andrew Morris ]

[Michael Ernest]

DevSquare does not appear to be a practice site at all, but a code collaboration tool. It requires the user to download a series of jar files and still requires the user to have JRE running locally.

This doesn't seem to me to be a good choice for a practice area.

[kenji mapes]

Man, I am reading three books right now and I am going to have to delve into some more. Seems like even though I read about the same topics, I learn new things and garner a new perspective.

[Sunny Kumar]

Originally posted by Hentay Duke:
If you're just staring go through the tutorials on Sun's site, they're free and cover a lot of ground.

I too recommend it.

[Anirudh Shivaswamy]

I use Head-First Java(O'Reilly publishers). I think it is a good,non-intimidationg introduction. You can consider downloading Bruce Eckels' Thinking in Java from mindview.net. Or better,buy the book if you find it a good read.

[Unnsse Khan]

"Effective Java" by Josh Bloch

(see: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201310058/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-1581961-7132855#reader-link )

[Garry Jones]

Effective Java is quite good shows the depth of the author understanding - at the same time we get such good exposure to in depth knowledge - Effective Java is certainly good - beginers might not be able to appreciate it.

[John Zakrzewski]

I'm sort of a beginner myself in Java that is but I would like to share my experience. I just bought the Deitel "Java How to Program" and find it to
be a very good book but a little too much for me at this stage of the game.
Sooo.. I went back to the local bookstore and bought Head Fisrt JAVA and I can't say enough good things about this as a starting point book. Even though the code snippets and samples aren't particularily interesting the beginning of
the book is a great motivational experience. After a few pages go by, you feel
much more comfortable about delving into Java (which seems intimidating at first). After reading the first few chapters I was actually understanding concepts from the Deitel book that I'd read days earlier. This book is actually "fun to read" and that's alot to say for a book on a technical subject. I'd
certainly recommend this book to anyone. I actually cheated a bit and went to the section on jar files and was able to create an app and have it running off a desktop icon in about a half hour. Subjects are presented with lots of humour and real world situations. A great read (I passed it up
3 times because I though the cover was too silly or (maybe my brain did.)
GREAT BOOK!!!

[Pauline McNamara]

Welcome to Javaranch, John. Glad you found a book that makes you happy!

Pauline

[John Zakrzewski]

Originally posted by Pauline McNamara:
Welcome to Javaranch, John. Glad you found a book that makes you happy!

Pauline

Yeah it's a keeper...