Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book is wonderful. It cover all the thing about Java for a beginner programmer. I warn you this is a beginner book, not suitable for the professionals. But you are a starter for java this is the book for you. Moreover, if you a starter for programming you have to buy this... It has many good examples but for beginners :)) all in all, if you a starter, you buy it...trust me!!
Rating: 
Summary: Random and wordy
Review: This guy rambles too much. It's almost like he took a college lecture and dictated it for the book. His almost every thought is included in written form. Lucky us! ;-) For a faster, more direct intro to the language, I highly recommend Java 2: A Beginner's Guide by Schildt. It's much more concise, ordered, and clear. Horton jumps around too much. He touches on a subject and then tells the read "but we'll be covering that in a few more chapters." Then why bring it up? There are items like this throughout that really break up the flow. Despite my dislike of straight readability of this book, it will sit on my shelf as a decent reference.
Rating:
Summary: Patience is rewarded here
Review: This is a great intro book for Java. Ivor is a very, and I mean VERY good teacher, having the two most important qualities needed to teach effectively: clarity & patience. You will not find confusing and hasty or "terse" (another word for cryptic)explanations here, but this comes to the price that sometimes
this text will be even "too clear" so you must be the type that
can appreciate a calm, relaxed pace and is not a fan of a "fast & furious" style. My personal opinion is that a little patience
is not a big price to pay to get a solid foundation ... but that is just my idea..
You should also note that this book will teach you the foundations of the language in detail and will touch on some of the APIs (xml, graphics) but it is not going to cover technologies like Servlets, JSP, EJB and with good reason since doing that would be insane in an intro book. Don't worry though, with Classes & Inheritance, Threads , Streams, Collections, Graphics and XML you will have more than enough to digest. To sum it up, do you prefer to learn Java by a young, rampant, hasty, cocky young teacher or from a older, wiser one? Your choice.
Rating:
Summary: the best book in java for beginners
Review: This is the perfect beginners' book on java. It COVER ALL the thing you need to program with Java.. What you would expect a book that about 1200 pages . If you look for a book to start the java, This is the book!..this very very good.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: This is the perfect beginners' book on java. It COVER ALL the thing you need to program with Java.. What you would expect a book that about 1200 pages :)) .. If you look for a book to start the java, This is the book!..
Rating:
Summary: Extremely thorough for a "beginners" book
Review: This was truly one of the best books I've used to learn a language. It covers a great deal of the basics of the language in GREAT depth. Very little fluff, and tons of content. The text was easy to follow, but what I most appreciated was the fact that the author made a point to touch on many of the "quirks" of the Java language that can cause major programming headaches. There is very little "brushing over" of topics, and when the book IS forced to back off and refrain from going in depth on something (they had to cut somewhere - after all, it's still a beginner's book), the author warns you, so you know you're not necessarily getting the whole story. This is definitely the place to start if you want to learn the core Java language.
Rating:
Summary: Hey all you Java beginners, read this review before u buy...
Review: Warning to all you Java beginners: Don't expect to read this book and immediately graduate to an "intermediate" Java programmer - ESPECIALLY if you're new to programming and/or object-oriented programming. This book gives you a fairly good introduction to the basics of Java; Ivor Horton is a bit "dry" but does the job. If you don't have experience with object oriented design (like C++), you'll NEED to also purchase, "Beginning Java Objects" by Jacquie Barker. And when I say "NEED", I mean NEED!! Jacquie's book is absolutely ESSENTIAL for any person new to objects. It is impossible to fit all the beginning Java topics into one book (even if it is 1200+ pages) and Ivor doesn't try too. He goes over threading and Swing but you'll need to seperate books for these topics. Another warning for Java newbies: Beginning Java topics can be quite boring, I'm sure many will want to jump straight to the cool stuff like Swing, JSP/Servlets, J2ME...but you MUST understand objects, java terminology, and other basic principles FIRST. You may want to check out books like "Java Cookbook", "Design Patterns Java Workbook", "Design Patterns Explained", "Objected Oriented Thought Process" and especially "Beginning Java Objects" to complement Ivor's book. I gave this book 4 stars because "beginning" books should take you by the hand and babystep you through the process (in my opinion), this book doesn't quite do this (Jacquie's book does). You may feel more comfortable with one of these "dummies" or "teach yourself in 21 days" or "Java Bible" instead (though I haven't read any of these). But stay away from the "Core series" or "O'Reilly" books if you don't want something too hard. To learn Java you're gonna need to drop some $$ on a bunch of books and you'll need to spend some SERIOUS time practicing, but as Ivor Horton says, "Nothing worthwile is achieved without effort. You'll need to put in the work and have the ambition to succeed when the going gets tough."
Rating:
Summary: Hey all you Java beginners, read this review before u buy...
Review: Warning to all you Java beginners: Don't expect to read this book and immediately graduate to an "intermediate" Java programmer - ESPECIALLY if you're new to programming and/or object-oriented programming. This book gives you a fairly good introduction to the basics of Java; Ivor Horton is a bit "dry" but does the job. If you don't have experience with object oriented design (like C++), you'll NEED to also purchase, "Beginning Java Objects" by Jacquie Barker. And when I say "NEED", I mean NEED!! Jacquie's book is absolutely ESSENTIAL for any person new to objects. It is impossible to fit all the beginning Java topics into one book (even if it is 1200+ pages) and Ivor doesn't try too. He goes over threading and Swing but you'll need to seperate books for these topics. Another warning for Java newbies: Beginning Java topics can be quite boring, I'm sure many will want to jump straight to the cool stuff like Swing, JSP/Servlets, J2ME...but you MUST understand objects, java terminology, and other basic principles FIRST. You may want to check out books like "Java Cookbook", "Design Patterns Java Workbook", "Design Patterns Explained", "Objected Oriented Thought Process" and especially "Beginning Java Objects" to complement Ivor's book. I gave this book 4 stars because "beginning" books should take you by the hand and babystep you through the process (in my opinion), this book doesn't quite do this (Jacquie's book does). You may feel more comfortable with one of these "dummies" or "teach yourself in 21 days" or "Java Bible" instead (though I haven't read any of these). But stay away from the "Core series" or "O'Reilly" books if you don't want something too hard. To learn Java you're gonna need to drop some $$ on a bunch of books and you'll need to spend some SERIOUS time practicing, but as Ivor Horton says, "Nothing worthwile is achieved without effort. You'll need to put in the work and have the ambition to succeed when the going gets tough."
Rating:
Summary: Clear, well-written, and comprehensive
Review: While the voluminous nature of Horton's introduction may scare away a Java beginner, they should know that there is no better introduction to the language and the library. Horton uses visual aids whenever it brings added clarity to a situation, and spends just the right amount of time in each chapter on preliminary text-book style writing before throwing any Try-it-out programs at you. Like all Wrox books, if you don't understand how the code works, there's a short explanation of the syntax and classes involved following each example. The book teaches Java from the ground-up - starting with object orientation and basic language syntax. These first few chapters are solid explanatory. Next, the chapters on classes, inheritance, and exception handling describe the more advanced language concepts with just as much clarity as the more elementary information. The core library features are given attention and a large portion of the book is devoted to GUIs and drawing. I have never seen a more in depth and yet understandable guide that doesn't assume prior knowledge of the concepts. Additionally, Horton only uses the newest and most robust methods of doing things when there's a choice; for example, he opts to use the New I/O API rather than the old file input and output streams, but still gives you an explanation and example of how the basic streams work before bringing in the new material. I cannot recommend this book more for someone who wants to learn Java. The only requirement is some free time and devotion. Even if you don't intend to read the entire thing, the first 10 chapters alone are worth it.
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