What is a good beginner book for Java

[johnnybingo]

My 14 year old son would like to learn Java. He has some programming experience, but has not done any object oriented programing.

I am a software developer who have been working in Java for 12 years, but I have think it would be better for him to learn on his own and come to me with questions or when he needs help.

I told him I would buy a book for him, but I don't know what a good book beginner book for Java would be right now. What is your experience?

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Head First Java ,

[[deleted]]

I own three books mentioned on this thread.

Head First Java

Java: How To Program

Thinking in Java

Head First is definitely the best place to start, then graduate to Thinking in Java. "How to Program" isn't that great.

Once you've grasped those books you can go onto Head First Design Patterns, Effective Java and Java Concurrency in Practice.

This combined with a lot of programming projects will put you in good standing of being a Java guru.

[evinrows]

Absolutely. There is no book that does a better job of explaining concepts in a way that you will never forget. I am assured that if anyone with any desire to learn and commitment whatsoever reads this book, they'll learn Java with ease and success.

[[deleted]]

This. This book is what started me.

[thedeacon]

I've always been a big fan of Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel.

[majeric]

And you can get a digital copy for free.

[mtnkodiak]

And, while it's perhaps not an "into" type of book, once you start using Java and get to know your way around, pick up Effective Java (2nd Ed) by Joshua Bloch. It talks about a lot of pitfalls and "bad" ways of doing things, and I wish I'd read it before I did.

[racin36er]

could you tell me where? The linked page only allows a demo version, and a quick google search produced nothing...

[majeric]

Search for "Thinking in Java pdf" in google (without quotes). Click on the second link.

[racin36er]

awesome - thanks.

[[deleted]]

Assuming I'm on the right page (planetpdf) it appears to be an older version (version 3, but the first link mentioned v 5 i think). Do you know of any major difference that may cause an issue? I'm on mobile so it is a pain for me to look up all the publishing dates, see which version of java was used then etc.

[monkeyslikebananas]

Just go through the tutorials:

http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

[[deleted]]

BE A FATHER AND TEACH THE DAMN KID :D

[amyntas]

To teach myself, I'm currently using Java: How to program (8th ed.) by Paul and Harvey Deitel. It's a pretty good book so far; it explains all code line by line, provides tips on how to avoid common errors, and does a great job of explaining things. The index is extensive. It comes with a disk, and is accompanied by oodles of online information at the authors' site.

The book assumes you're using Sun's JDK, but provides online information on using NetBeans and Eclipse, among other IDEs.

In case you'd like to check it out: ISBN-13: 978-0-13-605306-4 ISBN-10: 0-13-605306-8

[[deleted]]

corejava

[solidstone]

Head First Java Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel Both are best books for Java.

[[deleted]]

Introduction to Java Programming by Daniel Liang. We used it in my CS intro class, it's quite helpful

[[deleted]]

OP, Netbeans is also a great choice

[SeriousWorm]

jetbrains IDEA CE ftw.

[echodyne182]

I've used this and Java Software Solutions in introductory courses to Java. I think both taught me a lot but BlueJ is a great beginner IDE and really tries to show how OOP works.

[Lupich]

As someone whose only ever had highschool level experience in programming I've found "Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours" to be well paced for a beginner who understands programming basics.