Rating: 
Summary: Decent, but not for a beginner
Review: Almost by default, I love O'Reilly books, but not this one. It's good, but not great.First, despite the author's statements to the contrary, it's really targeted towards fluent C/C++ programmers. Non C/C++ programmers will benefit, but clearly it won't have the same impact. Second, I have issues with the structure and organization. It has the usual, "Hello World" early chapter, but it goes way too deep. It gets into threading and other issues that may intimidate some readers. Also, the authors repeatedly use a variation of the phrase, "but we'll discuss that topic more in later chapters." Using that kind of phrase is okay from time to time. However, how often it's used in this book suggests that the authors don't have the material suitably organized for true beginners. Overall, the information seems well written, but not always well organized. It makes getting through this books more of a struggle than it needs to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the time or money
Review: As with most people, I usually dig O'Reilly books, but I made a big mistake here. Unlike other "Leaning" books, Learning PERL for example, this learning book did more to put me to sleep rather than teach me anything about Java. There were really only examples in the first chapter, then it lost it's track and felt more like someone's thesis on the subject than a real commercial book. This book was very successful at turning me away from Java and O'Reilly for a while, until I found "Head First Java". If your looking to learn about Java, look at Head First, it's much better, fun and you actually learn something about java, good programming, OO and all the great subjects that come along with those.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for learning Java
Review: I bought this book a few weeks back and have read about half of it. I have about 5 yrs of C++ behind me, and I wanted to learn Java. This book really did it for me. I must agree with some other reviewers that this is not a book to learn Java as a first programming language, because it doesn't spend a lot of time on syntax and stuff. But it covers the language extremely well and give many tips and warns against some pitfalls. The book give an overview of all the base classes, so it's good to read it BEFORE you start coding. That way you will know all the Java classes and be able to pick the the best design right of the bat. There is also a good section on programming Java using the SDK directly as opposed to some IDE. Personally I think it's very important to understand how things are done under the hood. So a great book for learning Java, but some programming knowledge (preferably OO) is required to get the most of this book. If you liked other O'Reilly books, you'll like this one.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this book if you do no know C
Review: I bought this book to learn Java, not to know the author's views on programming. I got really tired hearing how you do it in C. THIS IS NOT A BEGINNER'S BOOK. I have now bought Murach's Java book, it has examples and brings you along. Learning Java does not even tell you how to run the SDK. I wrote the publisher and got a mispelled all lower case reply. A note for Patrick Niemeyer, real programmers do use "goto". Try assembler without it.
Jeff Ward
Rating: 
Summary: Not Good for Beginners.
Review: I don't recommend this book for beginners because:
1) Less no. of examples with more complexity.
2) Object Oriented Concepts not covered very well.
3) The way topics are discussed is not so comprehensive and lack continuity.
Rating:
Summary: Suitable for experienced readers
Review: I have experience in C but not C++. Prior to this I tried to read Eckel's thinking in java which I found to be overly pedantic and at times, irritating (with many exercises trying to display arcane syntactic or semantic points). In comparison this book is very refreshing and I feel I am learning new stuff really easily. This book is dense but motivates using simple code. Explanations may not be complete (esp in Chap 2) but really this is a good compromise. This is definitely for someone with a background in programming (preferably in C or C++). Ideally one should have a programmers editor on and keep trying the code snippets as one reads (which is why the online version at safari.orielly.com is handy). So, in a sense, this book is not for the uninititated. But for those who have some exposure this is well worth the money and effort. The author also has a useful open source tool (BeanShell) which suggests some depth. Some Tips for readers new to java on windows: 1. Download and install jdk 1.4.x
2. Get a simple programmers editor (editplus.com for example)
3. Get Jikes compiler as a replacement for javac (copy it to the jdk bin directory) as its really fast and use it to compile within the editor.
4. Make sure your classpath and path variables are set properly. The former could include the jdk jre/lib/rt.jar and . the current directory; the latter could include the jdk bin dir. in XP these can be set using the controlpanel advanced setting for environment variables Once you can experiment with the code as you read, it becomes more interesting. I would say the book deserves at least 4 stars; I am giving it a 5 to offset some really low ratings :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Well paced introduction to Java, albeit a bit boring
Review: I read through some of the reviews for this book and I agree that this book is best for someone who is new to Java, but not new to object oriented programming. I would imagine that learning programming from scratch using this book would leave a lot of questions unanswered. But for someone with coding experience (like myself) this book offered a well paced overview of the language, some curious details (that would be irrelevant to a beginning programmer) and well thought out and clear examples. I would recommend it to anyone switching from other languages, but with some idea of object oriented programming.
However, I must say that the style of this book is rather boring, especially when it gets to the middle. Sure, any programming language is not necessarily a fun thing, but it can be MADE more fun, eg look at Martin Fowler's style. This book gets excruciatingly hard to read by the middle of it, so make sure you activate all of your patience to get through.
Rating:
Summary: Well paced introduction to Java for coders w/ experience
Review: I read through some of the reviews for this book and I agree that this book is best for someone who is new to Java, but not new to object oriented programming. I would imagine that learning programming from scratch using this book would leave a lot of questions unanswered. But for someone with coding experience (like myself) this book offered a well paced overview of the language, some curious details (that would be irrelevant to a beginning programmer) and well thought out and clear examples. I would recommend it to anyone switching from other languages, but with some idea of object oriented programming.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating...
Review: I'm a big fan of O'Reilly books, especially the Perl series. This book, however, is a big disapointment. I mostly know perl, and I know a little C. I have very little experience with Object Oriented programming, so my Intro to Java teacher recommeded this book. It should be pointed out that this book is not for Object-Oriented beginners. The learning curve presented in the first few chapters is very steep. For example, the "hello world" examples are supposed to explain complex concepts in a simple manner. In this book, however, few of the "hello world" examples are explained with complete code examples; and at least two of the examples contain serious errors which prevent them from running. I'm very dissapointed in this book, and am returning it tomorrow.
Rating:
Summary: Learning Java? Great book for your library
Review: I've been reading other reviews and mostly the negative reviews emphasize the learning curve and just how difficult some of the more examples are. Well, the title of the book "Learning Java". There's nothing to indicate that this book is for beginnners. This book is aimed towards a seasoned programmer (some C/C++ and java) and goes in-depth at some points in the book about the complier, garbage collection, etc. etc. and things that you normally wouldn't get out of a beginner's book. Most beginner books are syntax based and very example oriented.
While this book gives numerous examples, they're very abstract in emphasizing the author's point. I find the book very readable even though I'm extremely new to Java. I've programmed mostly in server side scripting (ASP,PHP,CFM,JSP), I've done very little in C and I have some C++ experience, but it helps in understanding Java even more. If you like the Java programming language, but want to go beyond just the basics, this is definitely the book for you.
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