"Core Java" is a good book to learn Java for the first time. It gives fairly detailed description of everything a novice might need, but at the same time the book isn't too technical and doesn't get too dry or boring. The examples in the book are concise and well crafted.

Excellent java book for the non-novice. Just wonder why the publishers do not have a Kindle edition out for this book when Vol II is on Kindle!!! I wish it comes out soon in an ebook version.

I am a student and was completely new to Java when i got this book. It's a simple perspective and yet has enough depth to appeal to beginners in Java. I highly recommend it.

I am a self-taught Perl programmer. I've been using Perl 5 for about eight years, and in the last couple of years I've been wanting to move to Java. I've tried so many books - Herb Schildt's "Beginning Java" (too easy and boring examples), Deitels' gigantic volume (worthless crap - as are all of Deitel's stuff; I mean, do you really need to waste a chapter teaching would-be Java coders UML?), Cadenhead's "Teach Yourself Java 6 in 21 days" (left too many holes; not enough depth in critical areas, and lots of mistakes), etc. I finally found this book and ordered it. This is the one I should have been using all along.

When you work through this book, you get the sense that you are being taught by a real Java guru, an author who isn't going to leave you hanging. This is a serious text, and as others have noted -- it isn't for a new programmer. Having said that, it is perfect for anyone coming to Java from another language. About the only critical remark I would have is that I think the chapters on error-handling and on collections might have been better placed ahead of the chapters on Swing; as it is, the Swing stuff seems a little bit of a diversion in the middle of the book. But fortunately, this book is so well done that you can easily jump forward a couple of chapters, then back one, etc. Indeed, there are some places where the author simply says stuff like "the rest of this chapter may be more relevant to the tool-builder than to the application programmer; application programmers may want to skip ahead to the next chapter." To me, that represents an honest writer who has years of experience teaching people Java.

A word of advice: if you are the kind of person that learns best from little exercises, strict tutorials, etc., you may not want this book (except as a reference). If, on the other hand, you like trying out the stuff by applying it "in your own world" so to speak, this book is ideal; you should be sufficiently inspired to adapt the examples, etc., to your own liking.

I have worked through just about all of the book in about a month, and I am now confidently "converting" some of my Perl stuff over to Java. This book has given me a real love of Java, and I look forward to working my way through Volume II when I finish this one.

This is a great reference guide for many java techniques. That being said, you should have some knowledge of either java or another programming language before picking this book up. DO NOT buy this book if you are looking to learn java from scratch with no prior programming experience. This book covers a large range of topics and would be too much for someone trying to learn the basics. All in all it is a great reference book and I'm glad to have it on my shelf and I think it was well worth the money.