Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for serious readers.
Review: Big Java is designed to get the reader up and programming with essential objects by Chapter 3. If you genuinely want to be a legitimate Java programmer, this is the book for you. It is well written, examples are carefully thought out and very helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: This is an excellent book...
Review: First, Big Java is a college level, introductory object oriented programming book. It is an in-depth book designed to take you from a programming novice to an advanced intermediate programmer (I don't like to throw around the term "expert"). This book focuses on the important aspect of computer science, and is not simply a Java book.Second, the book is well organized and clearly transitions among parts. Each chapter (and most sections within the chapter) have areas devoted entirely to common errors, quality tips, productivity hints, advanced topics, random facts, and a howto guide. These separate sections may not be necessary depending on the readers interest level, but you can tell immediately if you want to skip something. However, I believe that the "unnecessary" sections (such as random facts) keep the book interesting and fresh. Third, in response to other reviewers: This book is good for beginners and intermediate programmers. It does not require that you know calculus. It does not ask you to calculate integrals or differentials. It does however, require the reader to know slightly more than basic algebra. Since this is a college level book, and because algebra is the basis for any computer language, it is not shocking that it makes the reader practice those skills. The only part of the book that assumes that you know "nothing" about computers is chapter 1 (gasp). In any book, there are going to be exercises that you think are pointless. The solution is amazingly simple(pun intended): don't do the problems! If you have a teacher that makes you do the problems, then complain to your teacher. There are always a few mistakes in code examples. This is even less surprising in this book because it is very rich with code examples. In addition, the web resources (which is great all around) contain a section for typos in the book that is easily accessed. A final note. Please don't bash a book that you obviously haven't read much of, and don't make claims such as "requires calculus" when it is obvious that you haven't taken calculus. This book has 25 chapters and over 1100 pages of good information on Java programming and computer science concepts.
If your smart you'll buy it, if you aren't, you'll buy Java for Dummies.
Rating: 
Summary: tough to read
Review: I am only a novice. While I have read several other books on Java; I did so very rapidly and without really trying to work out the problems. When I read "Big Java" I find myself going to other books (e.g. Sun's Java 2 Language Manual; Complete Java
ver. 2, etc.) They just seem easier to comprehend -- more straightforward. Mr. Horstmann omits a lot of detail-- he "elides" many code snippets.* When I get through the book, I'll probably love it; it's a class text and I can't avoid it's use. For now ... arrrrrrgh! Billy Hess * In case you're wondering "what the heck?" it means to use an elipsis(...) in place of ...
Rating:
Summary: tough to read
Review: I am only a novice. While I have read several other books on Java; I did so very rapidly and without really trying to work out the problems. When I read "Big Java" I find myself going to other books (e.g. Sun's Java 2 Language Manual; Complete Java
ver. 2, etc.) They just seem easier to comprehend -- more straightforward. Mr. Horstmann omits a lot of detail-- he "elides" many code snippets.* When I get through the book, I'll probably love it; it's a class text and I can't avoid it's use. For now ... arrrrrrgh! Billy Hess * In case you're wondering "what the heck?" it means to use an elipsis(...) in place of ...
Rating:
Summary: tough to read
Review: I am only a novice. While I have read several other books on Java; I did so very rapidly and without really trying to work out the problems. When I read "Big Java" I find myself going to other books (e.g. Sun's Java 2 Language Manual; Complete Java
ver. 2, etc.) They just seem easier to comprehend -- more straightforward. Mr. Horstmann omits a lot of detail-- he "elides" many code snippets.* When I get through the book, I'll probably love it; it's a class text and I can't avoid it's use. For now ... arrrrrrgh! Billy Hess * In case you're wondering "what the heck?" it means to use an elipsis(...) in place of ...
Rating: 
Summary: The worst computer manual I have ever read!
Review: I bought Big Java because it was the textbook being used in one of my college's computer programming classes, however, I ended up spending about $100 extra on other Java books because this one is just that bad. Why is it so bad you might ask?
-The author assumes you have no prior knowledge about a computer. This means LOTS of wasted explanations.
-The author assumes you have a background in higher level math. Some of the exercises assume you have already taken Calculus 1 or higher. As one reviewer mentioned earlier, a lot of the examples/problems are of the math sort. -Some of the exercises are absolutely USELESS. For instance, one question asks: "List all the programming languages mentioned in this chapter." Of course, since the book's companion website only answers select excersies for students, guess which question they decided to answer. Goodie. -Other exercises require you to memorize all of the classes/methods introduced in one chapter to answer the questions. If I want to know what a method does, I'll look it up in the Java library. -Other exercises are just plain obscure and confusing. -Some of the answers given on the website are wrong. According to the answers, a floppy disk costs more then a tape disk AND a CD. Gosh!
-Numerous times in class, the professor has run across errors in the example codes. I recommend you spare yourself the tears and the headaches and buy "Java 2 for Dummies" by Barry Burd or "Teach Yourself Java" by Joseph O' Neil
Rating:
Summary: Great for College Course
Review: I'm a Java instructor at a state university, and I recently received a copy of this book. I think it addresses the needs of a classroom far better than many of the other Java books I've seen so far. We used Core Java for a while, but it lacked the pacing, visual aids, and examples that were needed for our students. I think it will be perfect for our 2nd-semester students who have had a semester of C++ and now need to explore inheritance, polymorphism, and recursion. I particularly like the fact that Big Java introduces container classes and elementary data structures, providing a smooth path from this level into a full-blown data structures course in the following semester. Another plus: Horstmann introduces graphics at a very early point in the book, making this topic easily accessible and providing motivation for the students to explore graphical programming at a deeper level later on in the course.
Rating:
Summary: Big Java is a great book!
Review: If you find a book which teaches only syntax of java,
this is not for you.
But if you want to have a book which tells not only syntax but also principles and secrets of Java API, Big Java is for you. This book arranged contents using Quality Tip, Advanced Topic, Random Fact. If these coners makes you detour the learning path,
you can skip some of those. But these will be definitely helpful, if you look for some of them in the future when you need it. I recommend this for you!
Good luck~!
Rating:
Summary: give you the concept, but indirectly!!
Review: this book is definitely a HARD read for beginners. It took me quit a while to understand the concepts and codes presented in this book, because the author omits a lot of further explanations on many examples. It wasn't until I had to look up on line or refernce to other java books that I could finally understand the concepts that the author's talking about. He's a very INDIRECT guy... so to wrap up, if you are somewhat exposed to java or have some basic understanding of it, this book should help you out quit a bit. if you are a beginner like i was, no, i will not in a million years recommend this book to you. Lastly, if you are already an "expert" or intermediate programmer, this book should be in one of you collections. since the author's just pointing out the big pictures, but omits the detail works, this must be a great REFERENCE book.
Rating:
Summary: Good for computer science students
Review: This book is different from the other popular Core Java books by the same author. It has many mathematics examples. Some examples are useful in business. I trained Java and Advanced Java in many firms in the New York area. This book is too much for one Java course, and not enough Advanced topics for two courses. But it is a valuable reference for someone who knows Java.
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