Head First Java, 2nd Edition

Learning Java Through Applications: A Graphical Approach (Programming Series) (Programming Series)

Core Java(TM) 2, Volume I--Fundamentals (7th Edition) (Core Java 2)

Beginners Guide

Simply Java : An Introduction to Java Programming (Programming Series)

Format: Paperback
Author: James Levenick
ReleaseDate: 08 September, 2005
Publisher: Charles River Media
Rating:

A superb, gentle introduction to JAVA
Perfect for beginning programming students and intro classes, the text is clearly written and the examples illuminate the concepts put forth. This book is intelligent, well written, and a gentle introduction to programming using java.

The Best Approach I've seen
The author starts off saying 'Why write yet another introductory Java book?' Good Question. This is the first Java book that I've been able to read. The answers he said were that existing Java books were simply too tedious to read (I agree. ), second, they immediately start talking about things like object orientation and classes which are useless at the beginning and are treated in those books almost like a mantra.

This book starts out writing a program. This gets you familiar with the constructs of the language before giving meaningless (at this time) definitions. In writing the program it says you have to have a bunch of words that are required, just put them in and we'll talk about them later.

The author says that he has had better experience with this approach than with other books. As one who learned programming in procedural languages more years ago than I like to remember, this approach certainly made sense to me. I'm still not a Java expert, but a lot better than I was.

The CD that comes with the book includes both the Sun Java 2 platform and the NetBeans IDE. All that you need to begin programming.

Great Guide
. Learning JAVA can be a very steep learning curve at first, but this book takes a great approach to making it as easy and painless as possbile, mainly due to the Authors genius.