2nd Edition, Head First Java

I've purchased several Head First series books and this one, just like the others, does not disappoint! The book was very easy to read unlike a lot of other books on the same subject matter. I'm about half way through at this point and actually get bummed when I have to put it down.

I have never said this about a technical book, but I LOVE Head First Java! I actually look forward to reading each new chapter. Not to mention that the innovative Head First concept of teaching really makes the facts stick to your brain. Aside from that it is quite entertaining to read. I will definitely be reading more books in this series. Congratulations O'Reilly and company on a true triumph in technical writing!

This book is perfect if you are new to programming with java, it covers a lot of topics fairly well, at times I wish some chapters were longer, as it seems like topics are explained a bit briefly, but since it's a beginner book, this is fine. I just finished this book, and feel like I got a decent explanation of some of the more advanced topics, and I got a deeper understanding of the more basic concepts. This book is great to read when you don't have a computer around, generally when I read books I like to have a computer around to type out all examples and work on exercises, with this book you can simply read through it and get a great understanding of a large amount of topics. Finally, this book is fun and hard to put down, I would recommend this book to any Java beginner.

I am a software engineer with little experience in OOA/OOD/OOP. I found this book very easy to follow and with my Linux machine in front of me, I did a lot of the sample code with little to no problems.There are still a few mistakes in the provided code but it wasn't hard to figure out what was wrong.

Best book ever! Catered towards the reader and not the content, this book is filled with corny jokes, black and white photos from the 1950's, and elaborate mnemonics to make learning about Java as easy and as manageable as possible. It is no coincidence that UChicago and UC Berkeley use this book for their introductory computer science courses

This is an excellent beginners book. I used the first edition long ago to learn Java. I have recommended it to several junior developers needing to learn Java from the ground up who I am mentoring. My only negative is the it needs to be updated to include Java 7 features.

I thought that this book was just terrific. Down to earth and funny with the ways that Kathy descibed what was coming, how to do something even how to think. I took some formal JAVA classes back in 2007 and was suppose to start using it on a project that we were starting but as things goes I have not used it as yet. A friend at work also bought the book because we were going over the fundamentals with someone from our vendor who is super sharp in JAVA. It really made 'remembering' easier and fun to read. I am sure that it will be a book that I'll go back to time and time again. Thanks Kathy for writing it in a way that made sense.

This book really helped me wrap my head around java and the idea of classes. Would definitely not have the same understanding of java as I do now without this book. Recommended to anyone looking to learn programming.

When you first glance through this book you will notice all of the retro pictures and half jokes. I've never read a Dummys/Idiots book on programming, but I can imagine them having the same look and feel. But then when you dig into the actual content...

This book, to me, felt like a good class on Java programming from a great professor who has real world experience - the tone is conversational and the topics selected that make the most real world sense. There are a few large "class projects" that have a very real world feel to them (a networked beatbox anyone?). Important points are pounded home. It is the class but without the text book...

The topics covered also seemed to have a "real person" feel as opposed to a textbook feel. I read another popular Java book just before this one. It threw 2 chapters on GUI basics as almost an afterthought, there was no networking, nothing about inner classes, nothing about making distribution packages, etc. In that book the basic ideas were gone over in great depth, greater than here, but these more practical topics were skipped or had the briefest mentioned.

With this book you start using Swing just a little more than half way through the book. All the topics in the last paragraph (plus many others) were covered in a practical method.

This book, however, isn't perfect. As mentioned above, this book is like a good class on Java programming without the textbook. Sometimes the textbook is needed. When I was in school I always read the textbook no matter how good the prof - it was needed to get the full benefit of the info. I also like having good reference books that I can leaf through when I have an issue. This book is a mediocre, at best, reference book and admits it.

It also often gets too cute. OK, sometimes that is needed, but it can get a little... As another reviewer mentioned, this books often seems to be aimed at collage age kids, not professional programmers. Not necessarily a bad thing - I've been out of my 20s longer than I care to admit and I never felt I was too old to be reading it.

I would recommend this book if you are just starting off in Java or are rusty and want to pick it back up. I would also recommend getting a more conventional book as foil and as a reference.

The authors of this book claim that they studied the way people learn, and wrote the book from that perspective. Maybe they studied how people with ADHD learn, but I can't tolerate the torrent of distracting gimmicks. I ended up taking a community college course instead that was actually effective.

This book is a great resource for my beginning Java students. I suggest that they buy this as a supplement to the text book to help them understand java basics. Like the difference between a class and a object. I hope the author's are working on a newer version to correspond with Java 7. I gave it four stars because this book focuses on an older version of java (yet the fundamentals are the same).

As a Computer Programming professor I would recommend this book!!

So, this can't be your first book on programming, the authors actually tell you this in the first few pages of the book, you need to at least have a background in any programming language even if you don't practice it. (PHP, Fortran 77, Pascal, Delphi, ASP, C#, Basic, etc...) Anything, but not HTML or CSS because those are not programming languages (seriously, they won't help you at all)

With that said, it is the best programming book that i have ever read, i am a C++ programmer with many years of programming under my belt, (although many of my programs would probably compile with a C compiler since i don't often use OO programming for my smaller projects)

The book is made in such a way that you don't need to memorize stuff, the book chats you into memorizing them effortlessly

although JAVA uses C syntax, this means absolutely nothing, under the hood JAVA seems to be very different, that person that told me that java is like C++, ++ed knows nothing about Java, this book indirectly tells you how java actually deals with things so that in case you did C++, you will not accidentally assume JAVA is the same.

And this is where this book kicks in, this book, through its super genius silly,, made my experience in learning java FAST, easy, and enjoyable.

This book is awesome. Its easier to read, the exercises are fun - who else does matching, fill-in-the-blanks and crosswords to learn programming. You do need a background in some other language to use this book and some write extra practice programs if you want to get good but I love,love,love it.

bought this book after researching online this title kept popping up everywhere so i thought it was a great buy. Author adds so much content making jokes when i just really want him to get to the point, I just want to learn java not read a joke book.

I've heard great things about Head First books, but was turned off immediately. Who has time to wade through all this cutsie/hip presentation? I returned gratefully to my all-too-grownup "Core Java" book and blasted through everything I needed to know, and more.

Personally, when learning a new language, I want to be able to write my own program within an hour. After I spent about 7 hours with this book, I was limited to only making a program that could print text--basically a "hello world" program. Even though I was learning about more advanced topics, I had no idea how to code in Java. I was becoming discouraged, so I decided to look up Youtube videos, to see if I could ACTUALLY begin coding. I was able to create programs with user inputs, and importing java libraries, within my first hour of watching Michael Fudge's tutorials.

The reason why I'm giving this book 3 stars is because it did actually help me a little bit while I was watching the Youtube videos.

I would say: get the book after you use whatever free online materials you find helpful. Only get this book, or whatever other Java book, when you feel the need to better understand what's going on behind-the-scenes with your code.

The tutorial / reference guide was excellent in terms of introducing a reader to the programming language. The methodology and aim of presenting certain ideas, multiple times, from a different angle really helped to elucidate many aspects of Java. It would have been useful if there were more such examples for certain topics: abstract classes, implements vs. extends, sorting, etc. Other than that I felt like it was worth the investment and that it will make a handy reference guide in the future.

I'm a programming/Java beginner, using Head First Java to start out my newly selected career in programming. I've taken some basic programming classes in high school and college, but still a relative newbie.

There are TONS of great reviews for Head First Java. And with good reason. It's easy to digest, sometimes overly so, beating simple concepts into readers' heads over and over again. Instead of reading something that looks like this:

fasle;jfe jefrjf wejeiofja esfoewfje efjiofef eif efjaweoa asefjeo awejfe ej

for pages and pages and pages on end, the book utilizes pictures, arrows, sidebar comments, subheadings, the whole shabang, resulting in a much easier read than:

fasle;jfe jefrjf wejeiofja esfoewfje efjiofef eif.

What I don't understand is that anyone who is trying to wrap ther brains around new concepts, especially in programming, knows that learning requires EXERCISE. The only remotely close thing to actual programming practices are fill-in-the-blanks, match code to output, pool puzzles, etc. While this may be nice mental exercise, it IS NOT real programming, and the concepts it introduces chapter-by-chapter are far too easily forgotten by the next one.

I've done it myself. It's a nice read, but if you're serious about learning Java from the beginning of your programming career, GET A BOOK THAT ACTUALLY REQUIRES YOU TO PROGRAM.

Like this book because of friendly design, easy use and reasonable price. As beginners to JAVA we really benefit a lot from this book. Shipped soon with good package. Thank you and we recommended more people to purchase that again!

What sets this book apart from all others? This do not just teach you the syntax of the language, actually, this book doesn't have a lot to say about the syntax of the java language at all, but it is packed with visualized examples of how object oriented programming language actually works and looks like in real terms. I have taken java in college and in no way my instructor made me understand any programming concepts in large. Read this book before you dive into any other java book that is design to teach you the syntax, and you will be set for a very, very long time.
Some of the hardest concepts in OOP that is explained so well, a 5th grader will understand by reading this book:
Different between objects and reference variables.
Stack and scope
Reference and object equity
and so on...
If you were like me who were just stuck on the very first programming book and just can't get a solid grasp of the core concepts in it, please read this book, it will cut though so many more hours of useless reading and you will have a very clear understanding of how things works!

I left Java development back when the 1.3 version of the SDK was being eagerly awaited. On return I looked for a way to review past knowledge and get up to speed with new features. Head First Java was a fun way to do both. It is not a comprehensive reference resource, it's an engaging learning model that provides you with a solid conceptual and practiced foundation for digging deeper on your own. It moves a little fast for someone completely new to programming.

I am a beginner. I have read other programming books and had a very difficult time reading it because they did not fully explain and cover everything in full detail and with pictures. I learn a lot when what I am learning is fun and has pictures to explain the full process. Hands down my fav programming book so far. Even though I just started reading it It's easy for me to fully grasp and remember things that I had a difficult time remembering when I read other books. ALSO when I read other books I would have to use the internet to have it explain what the book was saying in a different way. That has not been the case with this book! This author needs to write a book on iSO apps.... :-) Fingers crossed

I am learning Java. I have gone through the first few chapters. The authors vary the presentation. It is clear and interesting. I enjoy reading it. We shall see how I am doing in two months when I finish it.

The book is geared to keep your interest and move you toward programming with ease. I found some of the program examples not very clear to understand. The book overall is a good reference and good buy for understanding java fundamentals.

Head First Java, 2nd Edition is a well designed self-paced learning
tool. My only complaint is the writing style sometimes makes it dif-
ficult to locate specific information. The index is also a bit thin
for an educational text. Example code is provided in most chapters
and answers to the exercises are also supplied. Overall, I recommend
this book for folks trying to learn Java without enrolling in a tra-
ditional class.

I highly recommend this book. I've purchased many other java books, but have never felt as if I was truly getting it. That all changed with Head First Java! I can really state that it works; even with the corny jokes lol. I've decided to dedicate my summer to it and now I'm thinking about ordering design patterns!

I got about halfway through the book before I had to go get another one with more examples of coding than this one offered. Perhaps it's just the way I learn but I didn't find the conceptual stuff a problem, it was integrating all the things together and see it all presented in working order that I was finding myself frustrated with figuring out at times. I'd rather be shown everything from the ground up than given little short cuts here and there and then just expected to know where they all fit together when shown little snippets of code.

This book really helped me when I first was learning Java! It puts all the concepts into real life situations so it makes everything easier to understand. It also has a lot of great demos and activities to help you practice. Highly recommend this book.