Rating: 
Summary: Good but may be a little too much
Review: I had the previous version of this book and lost it so I bought the new version because I really liked the one I had. Unfortunately my experience has been a little different with this version. It contains a lot of great information however I think it may have too much in it for most beginners and novices. It is also a very thick book and takes up a lot of space when carrying around.
The information is great in the book but it isn't something you'll be able to hold in with the first read.
Rating:
Summary: Encompassing Book
Review: I have a previous edition of this book and thought it was a very good guide to learning Java. Is it great? No, but it seems to be the best all encompassing book to learn the fundamentals of the Java libraries. It's one of the best books to teach a Java class with.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than The Average
Review: I just got finished eight months of JAVA classes. This book makes it a little easier to understand some of the concepts that are poorly described in other books. I would definitely buy it for a backup to any other JAVA textbook you might be required to have. Since JAVA is my first language I was glad that I picked up this book.
Rating: 
Summary: beginning ?
Review: I must have a library full of WROX books and by far this is the worst book i have read. The author is dry and confusing to say the least. He uses inapproriate examples which may confuse most beginners and his method of teaching is AWFUL ! WROX made a big mistake allowing this author to write this book.
Rating:
Summary: beginning ?
Review: I must have a library full of WROX books and by far this is the worst book i have read. The author is dry and confusing to say the least. He uses inapproriate examples which may confuse most beginners and his method of teaching is AWFUL ! WROX made a big mistake allowing this author to write this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional book for a beginner (like me)
Review: I started reading several Java beginner's guide type books but this one is the best. The depth and breadth Mr. Horton has crafted into his book allowed me to grasp, with admittedly some effort, Java object oriented programming concepts.This book presents a clear path, by using both words and good sample programming techniques, to learn how to be a productive Java programmer. To have a solid grasp of the tools Java makes available to the programmer, I recommend reading this book first then read a more concise book "A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification" by Mughal and Rasmussen.
Rating:
Summary: Great Beginner's book
Review: I've been teaching Java at the school of continuing education at our local university for 2 years now. Every term I go through the ritual of trying to find a text book for my class that would be more helpful to my students based on the reaction I get the previous term from them. This book is by far the clearest and most engaging beginner's Java book. There are other books that are more complete and more thoughts provoking like "Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckle (3rd Edition)". But for a beginner this is the clearest text I've found so far. I should say that my students are mostly C programmers with extensive experience in software development, so they are not Beginner Programmers, just beginner Java developers.
Rating:
Summary: A good beginner text on Java2
Review: I've completed about half the book so far and I am still going strong. That's the good thing about this book. I've tried reading a few other Java titles like Orielly's Learning Java or Just Java 2. Although they are good quality books, Hortons title is more appropriate for a novice beginner. The book does seem to concentrate for the most part on the client side, so you'll need to look at some Orielly titles like Java Server Pages and Java Servlet Programming after reading Hortons book for server side Java programming. The fact is that the Java framework contains many classes of specializations, and the client side GUI libraries like Swing or Awt can take a book in and of themselves. Horton takes time explaining the Java language definition and important areas such as file I/O and exception handling. I think that too many authors presuppose a readers background in Standard C++. Even though Java syntax is similar to Standard C/C++ syntax, the heavy use and design reuse of the framework libraries in Java is all new to systems developers with a prior experience with lightweight libraries. So this is the right book to start off your middleware Java2 solutions adventure primarily due to the beginner pace and handling of concepts.
Rating:
Summary: You cant go wrong with this book!
Review: In all the years I have been programming and teaching people about computers, I have never come across a book like Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java". If you have a commitment and have the ambitions to succeed this book is for you. Whether you are into creating graphic rich and interactive web pages or creating full featured window applications then you'll love this book. With this book you can learn Java plus the techniques you need for success with your own projects. With Ivor's powerful words and overwhelming examples you can learn Java 2 in no time at all. This book may seem daunting at first, but once you get into it you'll be amazed at how fast you'll get done. With over a thousand pages of raw, hard core java, good ol' Ivor gets the job done and will make it seem like a breeze. There is no need to continue your search for "the right book" because the search stops here. And if you really want to "go to town" then you can also get five other of his enlightening books. They are "Beginning Java Networking", "Beginning JSP Web Development", "Beginning Java Databases", "Professional Java Programming", "Professional Java Server Programming J2ee Ed". Buy all of these and you will be able to enhance your knowledge and advance your career in no time. The price may be large but the knowledge you will receive is beyond wealth. There is no way you can go wrong with this book so give it a shot and see what happens. You never know, maybe you'll be the next Ivor Horton.
Rating:
Summary: A good book to learn Java with
Review: In college, I predominantly focused on C++, but the java technology was appealing to me and I decided on this book. Though it contains a good number of pages, the author writes plainly, thus making java easy to comprehend. It starts from the basics (assuming you know nothing) and builds up. The author also explains in sufficient detail. If you are already familiar with an OO language like C++, you'll move through its pages alot faster. Because of its thickness, it covers sufficient topics to get you to the level of a proficient java programmer (e.g. from data types through to threads, exceptions, classes and packages, streams, GUI programming, Java and XML etc). For Java programmer certifcation readers who actually want to learn and not cram before taking the test, its definitely recommended. A good pick even for college freshmen.
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