Rating: 
Summary: Getting 'under the skin' of the language
Review: I've read a bunch of Java books, but none of them has provided the insights of Bruce Eckel's book. The author treats his subject not merely as another programming language, but as a philosophy. In addition to explaining why, not just how, things are done the way they are, he provides interesting parallels to C/C++. Complicated concepts are explained very clearly - at least I managed to grasp them quickly, after struggling to figure out what other authors had written. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't Live Up to "Thinking"
Review: I've been coding Java for over a year, and have coded various other languages (never much C++, though). I find this book thorough, but I don't think it lives up to the word "Thinking". Also, I find the examples lack "obviousness".I expected more from a book with "Thinking" as the operative word in the title. I expected something that approached the language from a big-picture perspective. This may have been somewhat true in the earlier chapters, but is certainly not the case in chapters 8 (interfaces & inner classes) and 9 (holding your objects). Maybe it gets better after those chapters, but I couldn't read any more without writing this review. So how does the book undershoot the word "Thinking"? If one examined a map of a lake with a complicated shoreline (bays, inlets, coves, etc), a "Thinking" book on the topic would cover all of the "channels" (for land lovers, those are boat pathways), and why one channel would be better than the other during various conditions (wind from the east, use the channel close to the west shore). I found this book tedious in it's exploration of every foot of jagged lakeshore. I'm not asking for a smaller book, just one that moves some of the lesser important features into an appendix or something. The examples exercise the language very well. They show many, many features of the language. They are not very self explanatory. A huge flaw in the examples is the dependence on the author's utility classes. If the reader is trying to understand Java's hundreds of classes, there is no need to introduce more classes, even if it shrinks the code a bit. It might make the examples a bit more tidy, but it comes at a big price. Every line the reader encounters must be run through the 'can I use it' filter. After digesting hundreds of lines of examples, keeping this filter 'on' is tedious. Many of the utility classes can be avoided, for example, what's wrong with just filling an array manually? It's not as cool, but it's instantly obvious what's going on! Why use an example with 10 items when it would be more clear with 3? Why have System.out.println(a), when you could have System.out.println("after doing x, a=" + a);? And how about including output in the book? Yes, we have the code on the CD, and I could run the example, but when I'm reading, I'd rather have the output right there in print. If you think popping open a few classes in the Java standard library, and figuring out how they work is fun, you'll probably like to read this book. Personally, I have never found the need to examine the workings of the standard library. I am "the client programmer", so I use what they've done. In my real world, the best code is not the shortest. The best code is written to be understood as quickly as possible. I think a book that intends to teach Java strive for "obviousness". The examples in this book, though, do not excel in that area. The examples can be understood, and they show a lot of features, but the same concepts could be demonstrated with more clarity. As I said, getting rid of the author's utility classes (yes, they are really cool, yes they would be great improvements to the language, yadda, yadda), would be a great first step. I have re-written a few examples without the utility class, and find it much easier to see what's going on. Some might say I made examples "for dummies", but if there is nothing sacrificed in the way of concept, then why not? I'm going to finish this book (if it kills me), and I'll likely be a better programmer for it, but I just don't think it's the shortest path to Java nirvana.
Rating:
Summary: A good Java book for the non-programmer
Review: As a programmer who already has a deep understanding of object-oriented design, I find this book to be terribly dull. Bruce Eckel clearly understands his subject matter, but he chooses to beat every subject to death before moving on. Frequently this takes the form of code listings *many pages* in length just to illustrate applying a particular principle to every single primitive datatype in Java. This book could be much improved by reducing many of the code listings to snippets that only show the relevant bit of code. This book is also printed in a very large font, which, besides for bloating the book to larger than it ought to be, actually makes it less readable. The coding style required to cram all those code listings onto the pages in an oversize font makes for very difficult-to-read code. Nonetheless, I'd recommend this book to someone with a minimum of programming experience wanting to learn OO design in Java. Bruce does a good job of explaining the basic principles of OO thinking.
Rating:
Summary: Through thoughtfull presentation
Review: Bruce Eckel proves both in his writing style, and coding style to be thoughtful, open to readers feedback, and constantly striving for an excellent product. This is shown by placing the draft/final version on the internet free to review. It has been viewed by novice and expert readers, and improved by their suggestions. The book also servers a good jumping off point to other books as Bruce freely acknowledges other authors and books that have been of help to him in learning Java. Best of all the book retains a single voice in telling the story of Java.
Rating: 
Summary: Most ANNOYING book I ever tried to learn from...
Review: After buying this book, and deciding it was a waste of time, I bought the excellent Sun Microsystems book, Core Java. Instead of throwing "Thinking in Java" into the trash, I kept it at home in case it might have some reference/pedantic value. Last night I tried to read up on something, only to become throughly annoyed again by it. The examples use Classes with names that have absolutely nothing to do with the methods inside of them; the methods are empty and frivolous implementations that go far afield from any useful illustration of the topic at hand. This writer is HORRIBLE at TEACHING anything. His explanations are disjointed and inconsiderate. His appreciation of English grammar is almost as bad as that of GW Bush.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, fantastic book
Review: If you are going to be programming in Java at your job, THIS is the book to buy. While you definitely need a background in programming to be able to use this effectively, it covers almost everything in Java that you need to know. Once you've read through all of it, you can confidently use any API in the Java 2 library. There are lots and lots of code examples, all downloadable from his web site. The CD that comes with the book is excellent as well. Even if you're NOT programming in Java, this book will help you as an object-oriented designer anyhow. There's lots here to learn about classes, inheritance, data abstraction, and so forth. If you're programming mind is still in a developing state like mine, being a college student, this book can't be highly recommended enough. At my current internship, this book is invaluable. Its code examples are VERY handy when I can't remember which Stream class to use. For the price, it's a bargain considering the wretched $100+ prices I pay for far less useful comp sci books. Even Swing, GUI's, and the basics of networking are here. To sum it up, I know this is a good book because I had it as my primary textbook in an advanced Java class with one of the very worst teachers in the comp sci department. I simply tuned her out in class and read the book, and I got an A. HIGHLY recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Java developers - START HERE
Review: This is a terrific book for both the Java newcomer and the experienced developer. Bruce Eckel's presentation of OOD and implementing the design in Java is very clear, accurate and not dry. I also liked the discussion of "Extreme programming".
Rating:
Summary: Excellent way to learn basics of java
Review: Start reading this book to learn why to use java, what advantages it has and how to design applications using the advantages of java. Then get a good book to learn java syntax. Do that and you'll have the foundations to becoming a great java developer.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Useless Book!!!!!!!
Review: This a completely useless book.I have been programming in sice the age of 10.I started with BASIC and then learned C when i was 13.Right now i am 15.I could'nt get passed the fourth chapter of this book.I dont know why everyone says that Bruce Eckel is a great programmer and author.WASTE OF MONEY.Definately NOT RECCOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: No better way to learn Java
Review: I haven't read another book that teaches Java and OO concepts as clearly as this one. Highly recommended.
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