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Random Spirit · Aug 21st, 2006, 8:15 AM

I have three books to recommended. Two are free to download form the authors web site. The third is a book that costs about �35.

Bruce Eckel's Thinking in java is a very good read and you can download it for free form his web site or buy it in the shops as a hard copy. It dives in at the deep end with object oriented programming. It mostly covers J2SE 1.4 but does have some information on J2SE 1.5 at the end.

There is also Java Notes 4 by David J. Eck. Its probably the best book i have read for a complete novice to programming. It is free to download in various formats and can be read online. It is aimed at first year computer science students and was recommended by my university as a intro java book. Its teaches Java 1.4 which means it is also modern. I dont think it has anything on Java 1.5 features such as generics, enhanced for loop, covariant return types and enums, that is not really a disadvantage as you can find many qiuck guides for java 1.5 new features online. Here is a link to it:

http://math.hws.edu/javanotes/

The third is Beginning Java 2 JDK 5 Edition by Ivor Horton. ISBN: 0-7645-6874-4. He is a very good author. His book takes you from beginning java right through to swing, xml and data access. It is a wrox book and i have yet to find a bad book published by them. If you want to spend some money on a book then this is what i would recommend.

If you want a Java reference then you could buy this book:

http://www.sun.com/books/catalog/Gosling_JLS.xml

I have not read it so i cant say if its any good. Its probably not what you want if you are learning java. So i wont recommend it.

Aug 21st, 2006, 8:15 AM	#2
Random Spirit Unverified User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 88 Rep Power: 0	I have three books to recommended. Two are free to download form the authors web site. The third is a book that costs about �35. Bruce Eckel's Thinking in java is a very good read and you can download it for free form his web site or buy it in the shops as a hard copy. It dives in at the deep end with object oriented programming. It mostly covers J2SE 1.4 but does have some information on J2SE 1.5 at the end. There is also Java Notes 4 by David J. Eck. Its probably the best book i have read for a complete novice to programming. It is free to download in various formats and can be read online. It is aimed at first year computer science students and was recommended by my university as a intro java book. Its teaches Java 1.4 which means it is also modern. I dont think it has anything on Java 1.5 features such as generics, enhanced for loop, covariant return types and enums, that is not really a disadvantage as you can find many qiuck guides for java 1.5 new features online. Here is a link to it: http://math.hws.edu/javanotes/ The third is Beginning Java 2 JDK 5 Edition by Ivor Horton. ISBN: 0-7645-6874-4. He is a very good author. His book takes you from beginning java right through to swing, xml and data access. It is a wrox book and i have yet to find a bad book published by them. If you want to spend some money on a book then this is what i would recommend. If you want a Java reference then you could buy this book: http://www.sun.com/books/catalog/Gosling_JLS.xml I have not read it so i cant say if its any good. Its probably not what you want if you are learning java. So i wont recommend it.