C. Owenby said
If you're new to Java and you're looking for your first book, THIS IS IT!!!
An earlier version of Head First Java helped me get started with Java a few years ago. I just completed my 4th year of teaching Java in Advanced Placement Computer Science.
O'Reilly's Head First books turn difficult subjects into entertaining and enjoyable learning experiences. Try it, you'll like it!!
I recommend this book to students and I still refer to it myself to get ideas on how to explain topics that students have trouble understanding.
Candide said
This is an excellent book even for advanced programmers. I would describe the style as "annotated text". It doesn't hurt that the annotations are funny or cute.
Gen said
Okay so I spent almost 30 minutes looking over the reviews here on amazon and I read both the good and the bad. I drove down to the bookstore and checked out the book myself...I spent over an hour and a half in the bookstore looking through this book and here's my take: This isn't per say a "beginners" book. As a matter of fact, on page xxx of the book (yes roman numerals) it gives you three questions to answer to see whether this book is for you or not! It's NOT for people who have never done programming, only dabbled with html and what not! Also not for C++ people either.
After that, I went on ahead through the introduction only to be slightly confused. Granted it tried a little too hard to be cool at explaining java terms and concepts that I had a "Wtf are you talking about" moment.
It's a very thick book and like one reviewer said, it had way too many notes and sidenotes and sidenotes to the sidenotes that made me go, "Wait what?"
Bottom line: If you already have some sort of intro to programming and want to learn java then this book is for you. If you are an absolute beginner and have absolutely no knowledge of programming or have dabbled in it AGES ago (like me), this isn't for you. The book even says so itself. The reason why I gave it a two is because it advertises itself as if it's going to teach you java from scratch but no it doesn't. Plus the whole "cool," with cool stories and too many sidenotes and pictures and cartoons approach just doesn't cut it for me. I think it's a bit too much. I mean there's a kids computer programming book out there that I browsed through that was more sophisticated and straight to the point than this.
Gargamelico Voador said
This is one of the best books for Java beginners. I've trained several teams with it.
R. Clay Stuart said
This product is pretty good; however, it's content to length ratio is a little low. You have to read a whole lot to get much, and that's a slight nuisance.
Still, it seems to be one of the best books out there for learning Java, and I'm glad I bought it, and I would suggest it to others who are learning Java.
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