Rating: 
Summary: Gigantically Bad
Review: If you like the large-print version of Reader's Digest, then you might be happy with this book and it's gigantic text. Otherwise, I recommend avoiding it. I admit this more of a personal opinion that my other book reviews, because Eckel has written several books and has his own following. However, as I was learning Java this book was not useful to me whatsoever. In any case, a free, electronic version of this book is available on Eckel's website.
Rating: 
Summary: Something about Java
Review: I have been coding for donkeys and Thinking in Java is the so finely written and easy to follow, as an IT professional I would say it is one of the best programming books I have read (and I mean I read it cover to cover). If you are newbie or expert in Java you will have a religious experience with this book. On ya Bruce, you kick ass, I can't wait for your J2EE book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, hard to believe you can read it for free
Review: I read the web edition of this book as well as his other book Thinking in C++ and find them both to be remarkably well written. Hard to imagine he puts it online for anyone to read for free but it obviously gives him a lot of net coverage and more readers. I think it was a wise decision to do so not only for himself but more importantly everyone else. Just because you can read it for free doesn't mean that it sucks so if you are in the market for a good Java book then this would be an excellent choice.
Rating:
Summary: Note to Author:
Review: This is a simple thank you to let the author know that your work is very much appreciated. In my constant pursuit of improvement, I enjoy hearing the "why" of someone's beliefs, as it challenges my own, resulting in a stonger conviction or a change of thought. Your explanations serve that end well. Keep up the good work.
Rating: 
Summary: *Excellent content *Dour presentation *hard for novice
Review: rating 4.5.
First of all this book was freely available online. That was how it was written I believe: posted, public review, correction. A novel approach. This books is plain inside. His prose and explanations were ostly good, but a time just a little too verbose for me (no criticism but it just didn't do it for me: I prefer succint explanation + example: he can wax lyrical just a little bit, which lends some warmth to the work, but also for busy people uneeded....so it's a personal judgement). The code examples in the book are probably the ugliest I've ever seen in a while (font wise...the code is presented as pages and pages and pages of monospace...ah the humanity! Very intimidating for the novice! Compare to deitel: colored!) Seriously, given the process this book went through: continual public online review, editing and criticism, means the errors are minimal and the content focused on what you need to know as guaranteed by peer-reivew (not a bunch of superfluous, repitition nonsense that pad out Deitel books)...This is a really great book that was diminished a little through corner cutting by a publisher. If you can get beyond the mediocre presentation, then you find an excellent book for the above novice programmer. It's quite a philosophical journey through the heart of Java at times. And coverage of most topics is quite strong (if a little weirdly ordered at times...but then that's a personal thing: eg. the introduction that the beginning is quite deep and intrduces some heavy-ish concecpts straight off the bat...but again this is a personal judgement: objects first or basics first? its 50-50 either way?) Actually I should clarify that: if you're a beginner: This book is not for you I don't think. I tutor a student who is just starting out in Java programming and he managed to get about 20 pages into this brick and then quit -> he said it was too hard. He opened it, looked at the code and his jaw dropped! Having read this book I can understand why. The presentation is not conducive to the beginner who needs more guidance through concepts rather than just slabs of text. That's the problem with writing a book this way (publically post-review-correct): the only people who interact are people who already know some Java or a lot of Java so this skews the process toward producing a book for them. Most beginners probably have never heard of Bruce Eckel and thereby didn't contribute to the making of this book. Hence they have been somehwat excluded from the process. I can wade through pages of monspace Java code because I am not a beginner. But this is probably too overwhelming for one new to the language (it just hits them too hard I think). I recommend Kathy Sierra's Headfirst Java (foremost for the beginner!). FOr everybody else...what they hey why not! It's pretty good value and not a insipid and dumb as Deitel. And it's more concrete that Van Der Linden. It and Ivor Horton's Beginning Java are on about par I feel, for different reasons: Bruce, the language coverage (depth far exceeds Ivor!). Ivor: for breadth and succinctness. I feel Bruce is wanting you to understand backward-forwards-upwards-downwards-inside-out the language. Not dazzle you with simple Swing stuff (which only works for novices anyway). When you're finished Kathy Sierra, come back and try this. YOu'll be ready by then! Hopefully version 4 they'll put a bit more effort into the graphical arrangement of the book: a few diagrams here and there wouldn't hurt...just to break the monotony. Seriously I think Bruce should get a new publisher...one who will fulfill his vision, not impede it with their cheapness. COntent wise: VERY good. Doesn't wallow in the cheap ooh-ahh factor of Swing that much, but does the langauge very well (I wasn't overly fussed on treatment of inner classes...but that's a personal thing I guess). Still this is one of the benchmark books for begining/intermediate programmers and that didn't happen by accident! And as one of the benchmark books
Thinking in Java: Bruce Eckel
Beginning Java: Ivor Horton
Just Java 2: Peter Van Der Linden
How to Program Java: Deitel & Deitel
Core Java 2: Horstmann I would rate them as such (in order):
For beginners: Horton, Eckel, Deitel, Horstmann, Van Der Linden
For Intermediate: Eckel, Van Der Linden, Horton, Horstmann, Deitel
Best all round: Eckel, Horton, van Der Linden, horstmann, Deitel
best visual layout/ quality of publication: deitel, Van Der Linden, Horton, Horstmann, Eckel
broadest view: van der linden, eckel, Horton, Deitel, Horstmann
most useful code: horstmann, deitel = eckel = horton, van der linden
value for money: eckel, horton, van der linden, horstmann, deitel
Rating:
Summary: Great Work! Greak Book! You should not miss it!
Review: The book is organized very well. The contents, the order, even the examples are selected elaborately. If you want to learn Java, you can't miss this book. if you want to learn OOP program, it is also a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: Work of Art
Review: This book has 250 reviews allready, so my rating is not going to change anything.
But this book is so profound and simple and complite, that I just can stop, but rate it with 5 stars. It is simply the work of art in Java Programming.
Two word on who I am. I am proffesional Java/J2EE programmer with 6 years in OOP/OOD, second degree in physics and 3+ years in Java/J2EE. I did read a lot of books on Java and J2EE, but this one is absolute chempion!
Rating: 
Summary: Not for those new to Java
Review: After reading these reviews on Amazon I got the impression that this book was very good, and that having a background in Visual Basic 6 and PHP, it would be ideal for me as a Java beginner. Luckily I borrowed it from the library first, because that was not the case. The book is boring and I would have been lost if I hadn't already read a bit of Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 days. Also, the examples take too long to understand. My next stop will be Java 2: Beginners Guide by Schildt. Or, Head First Java by Bates.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading "topics covered"
Review: The Amazon review of this book includes a "topics covered" which lists, among other things, JDBC, JSP, servlets, etc., none of which are covered in this edition of the book! I am returning this book, which I had hoped to use as a guide for our web development team, but since it covers nothing more than the basics, contrary to what Amazon advertises, I will have to look for something more substantial elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Still the Best
Review: I love and have bought this book for all the reasons I loved (and bought) the first two editions, and I appreciate the expanded coverage and extra refinement of the new one. I won't repeat at length what I said about the first two editions, but I will simply say that this book's title is very appropriate. It isn't just about how to do this or that in Java, but about a new philosophy of OOP as a form of communication. This way of thinking of things leads to methodologies--such as the Design Patterns movement--that are far more successful at dealing with complex and dynamic systems than the more simplistic and direct approaches taken by most previous languages and methodologies. I won't say that Thinking In Java is quick and easy reading or that most readers will get everything the first time through. I've followed the three editions through, exercises and all, a total of five times now, and I was still learning new stuff the last time through. This is no fault of the book. Learning Java is like learning chess. The rules may be relatively simple, but the implications of those rules are very rich in interesting possibilities, and also potentially very complex. It is to the credit of this book that it provides an intellectual path to this infinite universe of power and complexity for non-genius workaday programmers such as myself. Some other posters have complained that it takes too long to learn how to do some particular concrete task, or there isn't enough sample code to cut and paste into their projects, or that there aren't enough pretty pictures to guide them through how to do stuff. Thinking In Java is not a cookbook. It will do nothing to help the drag-and-drop scripting crowd that approaches the craft of programming as an exercise in cobbling together ready-made bits of code without bothering to understand how anything they are using actually works. It is doubtful that such people will ever understand and appreciate this book or the Java language itself, for that matter. I would suggest they they stick with Visual Basic until they have the time to devote to learning Object Oriented Programming, which VB is not.
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