yes, it's a tough question but if your beginning Java I recommend "Head First Java". The nice thing is that you won't lose interest as quickly as if you were reading a reference type book. The book won't teach you the entire language, but then again no book does that. Once you are familiar with the concepts, you can go deeper into the language and check out subjects that interest you. Elliotte Rusty Harold for instance is one of my favorite authors. However his books usually target a specific subtopic of the language such as java io, xml etc... Also, you should always pick up 2 or three good java books when starting off, cause you will cross reference like crazy when starting out. Good luck!

Hey Scott,

I would like to suggest "On to Java" (ISBN-10: 0201725932) which is a great resource.

Have fun! :)

Joshua Bloch wrote a book called "Effective Java" that comes highly recommended to be by someone whose opinion I value as one of the top teachers I've ever had.

I've yet to read it, but I'd go with his opinion any day. I don't know how much of the basics it covers either, but you can read up about it at http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-Programming-L...

I'll throw my vote in for Head First also. Simple to get you up to speed before diving into further readings/books on more advanced topics.

I don't have a book to recommend because I don't think books generally do a good job of teaching how to program, so I don't use them for that. I do use them for reference from time to time though.

FWIW When I was learning java, the primary resource I used was http://www.mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html. It's a veritable treasure trove of information about the language.

I also learned an awful lot when I started working on the CFEclipse project. The nice part about that was I could trace through the code to try to understand it and fix small niggling bugs. The CFEclipse developers are more than happy to give anybody a leg up if they're trying to get to grips with the code.

The final thing I would suggest is looking into some of the embedded things people have done with Java in ColdFusion. It's almost always easier to learn something new when it's presented in the context of something you already understand.

HTH

I Would agree with most of the other people Head First is a great place to start. Avoid effective Java it is a great book but not for beginners as Nat pointed out. Thinking in Java is also really good and one I use more as a reference. For websites checkout www.javaranch.com it has some really good articles and is run by the creator of the HF books so it has quite a few articles in a similar 'easy to get your head around' vein as the books.

Another vote for Head First Java... it's quirky and unusual, but written by Java programmers and organized/formatted by learning technology experts.

It's a good read and a great way to learn Java, especially if you do the excercises and stuff.

Head First Java, Head First Design Patterns
& Thinking in Java

Think that's pretty much it :p

Hi, nice web - site, and thanks a lot for all the useful informations, kind greetings from germany

Very useful informations for me.Thank you,books are the best.

I recommend Head First Java too, my personal reference in java things.

thanks
best regards

I thinh that Java isn´t easy to learn and the theme is very dry.

You can use this books to learn Java.

You can use this books to learn Java.

You can use this books to learn Java.

nice log..

Thanks for very interesting article.

Thanks for informations.

i have a java menü on m,y webseit some users habe problems with this. i hope i can change this problem.

thanks for tips.

Thanks

The problem with many books on JAVA (or, software, in general) is that things change so quickly that the book becomes outdated (sometimes) even within a few months. It may be a good way to start, but if you buy a book that's too old, it will be a horrible way to start. You've got to keep rather focus on buying new books, regardless of how well rated the old ones were, because they will have tons of outdated information that's useless to you and not worth learning or going through all that trouble at all.