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11 Best Java Books for Beginners and Advanced Programmers

New programmers rely on Java books. Combined with articles, tutorials, and videos, they're part of a well-rounded resource library for learning Java.

And Java, as one of the leading programming languages , has many to choose from. That prompted our research into the world's best Java books. We considered the price, length, and expertise of the author. Read on to find Java books that work for your style of learning.

• 11 Best Java Books for Beginners & Advanced Programmers

Here, we assembled a list of 11 excellent Java books to advance your learning in Java. Those looking to learn at their own pace may also want to consider on-demand video services. We evaluated Java courses as well. Below, we discuss only Java books as learning resources.

As a reminder, we looked for the depth of the coverage, recent updates, and cost. Our considerations included Java books from many publishers, but you will see several names appear more than once. We respect these publishers for their subject matter expertise and unique insights.

1. Core Java Volume I – Fundamentals

Author – Cay S. Horstmann Latest Edition – 11th Edition Publisher – Prentice Hall

Core Java Volume I – Fundamentals is a Java reference book (Best book for Java)that offers a detailed explanation of various features of Core Java, including exception handling, interfaces, and lambda expressions. Significant highlights of the book include simple language, conciseness, and detailed examples. The latest edition of the Core Java Volume I – Fundamentals comprehensively updated for covering Java SE 9, 10 & 11. The book helps Java programmers develop an ability to write highly robust and maintainable code.

Check the Current Price

2. Effective Java

Author – Joshua Bloch Latest Edition – 3rd Edition Publisher – Addison Wesley

A must-have book for every Java programmer and Java aspirant, Effective Java makes up for an excellent complementary read with other Java books or learning material . The book offers 78 best practices to follow for making the code better. Effective Java divides all the mentioned best practices into 11 distinct sections, such as Concurrency, Generics, and Methods, to make it easier for the reader to grasp it all. The book offers something to Java programmers of any skill level. Effective Java is written by Joshua Bloch, who is also the author of many key Java classes and APIs, including java.lang and Java Collection framework. The context of the latest edition of the book built around Java 7, 8, and 9.

3. Java: A Beginner’s Guide

Author – Herbert Schildt Latest Edition – 8th Edition Publisher – McGraw-Hill Education

If you are a seasoned Java programmer looking to enhance your Java knowledge, don’t be averted by the title of the book, Java: A Beginner’s Guide. It is, in fact, one of the most comprehensive books for learning Java. Anyone with basic programming knowledge can easily benefit from Java: A Beginner’s Guide. The Java book covers all concepts pertaining to Core Java. The latest edition of Java: A Beginner’s Guide is fully revised to include Java 11 SE. The book offers several hands-on exercises as well as a quiz section at the end of every chapter t o let the readers self-evaluate their learning .

4. Java - The Complete Reference

Author – Herbert Schildt Latest Edition – 11th Edition Publisher – McGraw Hill Education

Java - The Complete Reference is a convenient Java reference book with over 1000 pages. It contains every aspect of Java that you need to master. In addition to examining essential portions of the Java API library, Java - The Complete Reference covers fundamental programming principles, Java language syntax, and keywords. The book is full of discussions and apt examples to better Java learning.

5. Head First Java

Author – Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates Latest Edition – 2nd Edition Publisher – Shroff/O’Reilly

The most important selling points of Head First Java are its simplicity and super-effective real-life analogies that pertain to Java programming concepts. It is also the best book to learn Java and start your learning journey with Java Development. Head First Java covers almost all OOPS concepts  and fascinatingly explains them. Despite several readers claiming it to be a dated book, as it covers nothing beyond Java 5.0, Head First Java is still found on the shelves of numerous Java veterans. Thus, it a must-have book for every Java pursuer and developer.

Some important topics covered by Head First Java include common OO mistakes, distributed programming with RMI and network sockets, and threads. Additionally, the book covers 42 mind-bending puzzles that will ensure a better understanding of Java.

6. Java Concurrency in Practice

Author – Brian Goetz with Tim Peierls, Joshua Bloch, Joseph Bowbeer, David Holmes, and Doug Lea Latest Edition – 1st Edition Publisher – Addison-Wesley Professional

Java Concurrency in Practice is one of the best Java programming books to develop a rich understanding of concurrency and multithreading. Don’t be fooled by the book’s coverage of Java 5.0, as it is still relevant and essential for any ardent Java developer. The only issue with Java Concurrency in Practice is that some sections might be challenging to comprehend at first. However, you need to understand that the topics covered by the book, i.e. concurrency and multithreading, are tricky in themselves. Hence, you will realize later that the strenuous task of going through the book is worth the effort.

7. Test-Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers

Author – Lasse Koskela Latest Edition – 1st Edition Publisher – Manning Publications

Test-Driven is an excellent book for learning how to write unique automation testing programs. It is a must-have book for those Java developers that prioritize code quality as well as have a knack for writing unit, integration, and automation tests. Test-Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers offers hands-on examples to test drive Java code. Further, the book covers acceptance test-driven development, the Fit framework, and testing Java EE components - JSPs, Servlets, and Spring Controllers.

8. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis Design

Author – Brett D. McLaughlin, Gary Pollice & David West Latest Edition – 1st Edition Publisher – Shroff/O’Reilly

Head First is one of the most beautiful finest book series ever written on Java programming language. Another gem in the series is the Head First Object-Oriented Analysis Design. It is part of the Head First Java trilogy, the other two being Head First Java and Head First Design Patterns. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis Design details different techniques used in object-oriented programming and design. The list includes coding for interfaces as well as how to encapsulate what changes . Head First OOAD is an excellent book to know how to write Java code better.

9. Java Performance: The Definite Guide

Author – Scott Oaks Latest Edition – 1st Edition Publisher – Shroff/O’Reilly

Garbage collection, JVM, and performance tuning are some of the most favorable aspects of the Java programming language . Java Performance: The Definite Guide covers all three of these Java topics in a simple yet effective manner. Java Performance: The Definite Guide educates readers about maximizing Java threading and synchronization performance features, improving Java-driven database application performance, tackling performance issues in Java EE and Java SE APIs, and much more.

10. Head First Design Patterns

Author – Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Robson with Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates Latest Edition – 10th Anniversary Edition Publisher – Shroff/O’Reilly

A good hold on the OOP and design patterns is essential for writing immaculate Java applications. Head First Design Patterns is one of the leading books to build that particular understanding of the Java programming language. Head First Design Patterns provides answers to several commonly asked questions about Java, including why Composition is better than Inheritance and how to change the runtime behavior of a class without stirring the already tried and tested code.

The latest edition of Head First Design Patterns is updated for Java 8. Unlike other books that rely on a text-based approach, Head First Design Patterns flaunts a visually rich format that makes learning faster and more efficient.

11. Clean Code – A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship

Author – Robert Cecil Martin, a.k.a. Uncle Bob Latest Edition – 1st Edition Publisher – Pearson Education

As the name hints, Clean Code is a classic Java programming book that imparts the knowledge of writing better code to its readers. The clean Code is divided into three sections. The first section covers the patterns, practices, and principles of writing clean code. The second part describes several case studies of ascending complexity. Each of them is an exercise in cleaning up the code. The third and final section of the Clean Code is a single chapter that contains a list of heuristics gathered while creating the case studies covered in the previous section.

Learning and getting started with Java is easy. However, writing efficient Java code requires robust knowledge of OOP principles. Clean Code helps in building that knowledge about the Java programming language.

Here are 11 other Java programming books that will further refine your Java understanding and knowledge:

• Core Java by Cay S. Horstmann and Gary Cornell
• Extreme Java - Concurrency Performance for Java 8 by Dr. Heinz Kabutz
• Java: How to Program: Early Objects by Paul J. Deitel and Harvey M. Deitel
• Java 8 in Action by Alan Mycroft and Mario Fusco
• Java in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference by David Flanagan
• Learn Java in One Day and Learn It Well by Jamie Chan
• The Java Language Specification by Bill Joy, Gilad Bracha, Guy L. Steele Jr., and James Gosling
• Think Java: How to Think like a Computer Scientist by Allen B. Downey
• Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel
• Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days by Rogers Cadenhead
• Spring in Action by Craig Walls

So, that sums up the list of 11 best Java programming books and 11 additional Java books. Which Java programming book or books do you consider the best? Let us know via the comments section below.

Books are helpful, but sometimes online courses can also kickstart your journey. If you are learning Java then Java Programming Masterclass from Udemy is a great online course to learn Java.

Happy Java learning. All the best!

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With 5+ years of experience across various tech stacks such as C, C++, PHP, Python, SQL, Angular, and AWS, Vijay has a bachelor's degree in computer science and a specialty in SEO and helps a lot of ed-tech giants with their organic marketing. Also, he persists in gaining knowledge of content marketing and SEO tools. He has worked with various analytics tools for over eight years.

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Vijay Singh Khatri

Java Concurrency in Practice (Old Edition) by Brian Goetz and Joshua Bloch Traps, Pitfalls, and Corner Cases by Joshua Bloch and Neal Gafter Java Performance: The Definitive Guide by Scott Oaks

4 years ago

I bought the book Java: A beginners guide. An excelent book for all the Java’s novels.

3 years ago

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Best Java Books

Dive into the world of java programming with the top recommended books for beginners and experienced developers alike, curated from popular tech publications and blogs..

• All Articles List
• 10 January 2023
• 145034 views
• 12 comments

25 Best Java Books For Beginners and Advanced learners In 2023

The best java books for beginners, 1. head first java by kathy sierra & bert bates.

2. Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies

3. Java: Programming Basics for Absolute Beginners by Nathan Clark

4. Java: A Beginner’s Guide by Herbert Schildt

5. Core Java Volume I — Fundamentals

6. Think Java: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist by Allen Downey and Chris Mayfield

Java books for advanced learners

7. effective java is written by joshua bloch.

8. Java: The Complete Reference by Herbert Schildt

9. Java 8 in Action

10. Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel

11. Learning Java by Building Android Games: Learn Java and Android from scratch by building six exciting games by John Horton

12. Java in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference by Ben Evans and David Flanagan

• Brief and good presentation;
• There is everything you need;
• A good description of modern tools.
• Good examples.

13. Core Java for the Impatient by Cay S. Horstmann

• Particular and short presentation;
• A very good selection of relevant topics for study by novice Java programmers.

14. Learning Java: An Introduction to Real-World Programming with Java

15. Grokking the Java Interview by Javin Paul

16. The Java Module System by Nikolai Parlog

• the most comprehensive description of the advantages of the modular system;
• excellent examples and strategies for migration to modules cons;
• has few syntactic descriptions, so it can be difficult for beginners;

17. Modern Java in Action: Lambdas, streams, functional and reactive programming

• This book contains all the modern features of Java, so it is extremely useful;
• Sequential presentation of complex concepts.The authors narrate sequentially and compare with what the reader already knows. So this book can be recommended even to beginners;
• For those who already know something about the topic, the book may seem somewhat wordy;

General-purpose books on programming

18. classic computer science problems in java by david kopec.

• Recursion, memoization and bit manipulation;
• Search, graph and genetic algorithms;
• Problems of restrictions;
• Clustering by k-means, neural networks and adversarial search.
• all useful algorithms and approaches to them in one book;
• Java examples cons;
• some examples are difficult for beginners to parse;

19. Head First Learn to Code by Eric Freeman

20. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin

21. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold

22. Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell

23. Grokking Algorithms: An illustrated guide for programmers and other curious people by Aditya Y. Bhargava

24. Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein

25. Think Data Structures: Algorithms and Information Retrieval in Java by Allen B. Downey

15 BEST Java Books for Beginners (2024 Update)

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Are you interested in learning the Java language and looking for some excellent book that will help you skyrocket your Java expertise? Then you have come to the right place.

Here is a curated list of the best books to learn Java for beginners . These books are highly recommended by Java experts and are helpful for students to grasp the programming fundamentals. These resources will guide you to build your career in this promising field and make you a better Java developer.

Best Java Books for Beginners and Advanced Programmers

1) head first java, 2nd edition.

Author Name: Kathy Sierra

Publisher:  O'Reilly

Latest Edition: 1st edition 

No of Pages: 720 pages

If you only buy one Java book, then this is it. Affectionately referred to by readers as Java Programming “bible.” It is the BEST SELLING JAVA book of all time. Head First Java provides access to information every Java Programmer must know. Most Java books written now-a-days are targeted for advanced developers, but Head First Java has taken into consideration problems faced by Java beginners. It is never before the approach to Java Training, and the books use Vintage Pictures, puzzles, code exercises, brain teasers, etc. for effective learning. You will find the book well structured, informative and intuitive to navigate through.

2) Effective Java (2nd Edition)

Author Name: Bloch Joshua

Publisher:  Addison-Wesley Professional

Latest Edition: 2nd edition 

No of Pages: 374 pages

Want to seek some practical guidance on your java programming projects but not sure whom to ask? – Well, this is your book. Joshua Bloch, the Author of Effective Java, does a great job describing best practices that you as a developer will find useful on a daily basis.

Whether you are a newbie, developer or a manager, there are mega doses of wisdom that all could learn because even for the experienced Java developer, Effective Java contains quite a few little eye openers.

3) Learn Java in 1 Day: Complete Beginners Guide

Author Name:  Krishna Rungta

Publisher:  Guru99

No of Pages: 174 pages

Learn Java in 1 Day will help you learn basics of Java programming. It addresses basic tenants of Java and OOPS like no other book. This edition has been updated to align with Java 8 and includes new options for the latest tools and techniques.

The book will familiarize you with various JAVA coding concepts like decisions, loops, arrays, methods, variables, lambda expressions, etc. As well as a brief introduction to the various framework it supports like Java SE8, Java Swing , Java Oracle, Java Eclipse, etc. Aptly called, Learn Java in 1 Day the book is enough to get your hands dirty with Java.

4) Core Java Volume I -Fundamentals (11th Edition)

Author Name: Cay Horstmann

Publisher: Pearson

Latest Edition: 11th edition

No of Pages: 928 pages

Core Java Volume I fundamentals book, written by Horstmann is an ideal book for both beginners and experienced programmers. This book covers most of the topics needed by Java programmer of any level of experience. The best part about this book is that it is easy to read for someone who does not come from a computer science background.

This fundamentals book includes many pages covering such topics as Reflection, Proxies, Class Loader, etc.

5) Mastering Java Machine Learning

Author Name: Uday Kamath Krishna Choppella

Publisher: Ingram short title

Latest Edition: 1st edition

No of Pages: 556 pages

Mastering Java Machine Learning book written by Uday Kamath covers many topics that are useful today in machine learning. The book offers fundamental knowledge of linear algebra, probability, and statistics. The book contains 10 real-world case study highlighting various techniques of machine learning .

This Java book covers many essential topics that are made with the help of case studies using a Java library or a tool. It also covers standard issues such as text-mining, classification, clustering, big data, and, machine learning.

6) AI Algorithms, Data Structures, and Idioms in Prolog, Lisp, and Java

Author Name: George Luger

Latest Edition: 6th edition

No of Pages: 464 pages

This Java book is useful for studying Programming Languages and AI Programming. It’s meant as practical addition to a theory-driven book by the same authors. This book covers a lot of ground but not very comprehensively.

It also includes important topics like a simple production-like system based on logic, logic-based learning, and natural language parsing.

7) Java Deep Learning Projects

Author Name: Md. Rezaul Karim

Publisher: Packt Publishing Limited

No of Pages: 436 pages

Java Deep Learning project is a useful book for a data scientist, machine learning professionals who like to expand their knowledge by learning Java deeply.The book helps you to develop advanced deep learning models and teaches you how to do complex numerical computations. You should have a basic understanding of machine learning concepts and a working knowledge of Java to learn this book.

The book covers many important machine learning concepts like neural network architectures,object detection, online trading, transfer learning, and how to use factorization machines for advanced movie recommendations.

8) Java: A Beginner’s Guide, 7th Edition

Author Name: Herbert Schildt

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Latest Edition: 7th edition

No of Pages: 752 pages

The author Herbert Schildt helps you to learn the basics of Java language to more advanced topics without complicated jargon. This seventh edition covers the new released Java 9. It is also an ideal book for more experienced programmers who want to keep themselves updated with new features of Java 9.

Apart from experienced JAVA programmers, fresher programmers also find this volume useful. This Java book is helping them to get a grip on Java. This book provides great coding references to professional developer.

9) Murach’s Java Servlets and JSP, 3rd Edition

Author Name: Joel Murach

Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates Inc.

Latest Edition: 3rd edition

No of Pages: 738 pages

This book is a 3 rd edition of Murach’s Java Servlets, and JSP makes it easier for any new programmer to getting started with Java programming. Book also shows how you can install and use the Tomcat server and the NetBeans IDE. The book illustrates how to use JSPs and servlets to build secure web applications that implement the MVC pattern. It covers chapters for how to use sessions, cookies, JavaBeans, and custom tags.

It also teaches how to work with JavaMail, SSL connections, encryption, authentication, filters, and listeners. It covers an introduction to JSF to expand your perspective on Java web programming.

10) High-Performance Java Persistence 1st Edition

Author Name: Vlad Mihalcea

Publisher: Vlad Mihalcea

No of Pages: 488 pages

High-Performance Java Persistence 1st Edition written by Vlad Mihalce is a must-read book for those who want to excel his skill for developing various types of Java application.

It is an ideal reference book for every Java developer that needs to interact with a relational database. There are many Java books in the market which covers the basic topics. However, this book offers a lot of stuff about database systems in general, as well as JDBC and Hibernate

11) Java: A Step-by-Step Guide for beginners

Author Name: Daniel Bell

Publisher: Independently Published

No of Pages: 187 pages

Java: A Step-by-Step Guide for beginners book written by Daniell Bell introduce you to some basic concepts of Java. It also teaches Java language, features of Java, and how you can install Java on your system.

This book helps any beginner develop to learn Java concepts quickly and easily. The book offers a complete concept and gives in-depth knowledge of the object-oriented philosophy behind Java. This a surely an ideal book for beginners who wants to learn java and become master in a short period.

12) Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies 5th Edition

Author Name: Barry Burd

Publisher: For Dummies

Latest Edition: 5th edition

No of Pages: 560 pages

Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies written by Dr. Barry Burd is easy to understand programming book. While you are being taught by reading the book, you can write a program by reading examples step-by-step.

In this 560 pages book, you will also learn how to install the Eclipse IDE step-by-step, and with that, you can practice coding. This book covers many questions and exercises to reinforce your understanding of Java.

13) Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach 2nd Edition

Author Name: Robert Sedgewick

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Latest Edition: 2nd edition

No of Pages: 776 pages

It offers basic elements of programming like variables, data types, assignment statements conditionals, loops, arrays, and I/O. It also includes detail information about graphics and sound, functions, modules, libraries, etc.

The book also covers a plethora of practice problems. Moreover, a summary is given after every chapter and many supplementary exerciser and solutions also given in this book.

14) Learn Java: A Crash Course Guide to Learn Java in 1 Week

Author Name: Timothy C. Needham

No of Pages: 212 pages

A Crash Course Guide to Learn Java is a book written by Timothy C. Needham. This java book makes it easy to learn the basics. There are many other Java books which cover topics without much explanation and proper examples.

This book guide you to write a program step by step. This book is ideal for learning the basics of Java language.

15) Java in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself (Covering Java 9)

Author Name: Cadenhead Rogers

Publisher: Sams Publishing

Latest Edition: 8th edition

No of Pages: 447 pages

This book teaches you easy Java programming in just 24 lessons of one hour. The book uses a straightforward, step-by-step approach. It helps you increase your development skills requires to create desktop and web programs, web services, an Android app in Java.

This book also includes many Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter. It helps you to test your knowledge. It contains notes, tips, offers related information, advice, and warnings.

16) Java Concurrency in Practice 1st Edition

Author Name: Brian Goetz

Publisher: Pearson Addison-Wesley Professional

No of Pages: 432 pages

Java Concurrency in Practice is a reference book written by Brain Goetz. The book offers an inventory of concurrency APIs and mechanisms. It also includes design rules, patterns, and mental models that make it easier to build concurrent programs.

This Java book covers basic concepts of concurrency and thread safety, techniques for building and composing thread-safe classes, and testing concurrent programs. This book also covers advanced topics like atomic variables, nonblocking algorithms, and the Java Memory Model.

📚 Which book is best for learning Java Programming?

Following are some of the best Java Books for Beginners and Advanced Programmers:

• Head First Java, 2nd Edition
• Effective Java (2nd Edition)
• Learn Java in 1 Day: Complete Beginners Guide
• Core Java Volume I -Fundamentals (11th Edition)
• Mastering Java Machine Learning

🏅 What are the Benefits of Java?

Here are the benefits of Java:

• Java is object-oriented.
• It is platform-independent.
• You can effortlessly write, compile, and debug programs compare to other programming languages.

🚀 Why Learn Java Programming?

Here are the reasons why you should learn Java:

• Java is very easy to learn.
• Java developers are in demand, and it easy to get a job as a Java programmer.
• It has a good collection of open-source libraries.
• Java is free.

Must-read books to learn Java programming

by javinpaul

Hello everybody, today is the world of online courses. Everyone is talking about learning from online training, Youtube, free courses on Coursera and other websites, which is great as online courses to help you to learn faster, but, I believe books should still be an important part of your learning, as they provide the most in-depth knowledge and often written by authority on the subject matter.

If you are learning Java Programming , then be ready to be introduced to some of the most awesome books to learn and master Java Programming in this article.

Whenever a Programmer starts learning the Java programming language, the first question they ask is, “ Which book should I refer to learn Java? ” or “What is the best book to learn Java for beginners?” or “Can you tell me some good books to learn Java?” That, itself, says how important Java books are for programmers, especially beginners.

Despite having so many free resources available in Java, like tutorials , online courses , tips, blogs , and code examples, Java books have their own place because:

• They are written by programmers who are an authority in the subject
• They cover the subject with more details and explanation.

These Java books are my personal favorites, and whenever I get some time, I prefer to read them to refresh my knowledge. Though I have read many of them already (I have read Effective Java at least four times so far), I always want to learn something new and my quest for great books never ends.

These books are some of the best available today and are equally useful for beginners, intermediate, and advanced Java programmers.

It doesn’t matter whether you are completely new to Java or have been programming in Java for some time, you will learn a lot of new things through these books.

Having said that, not all books are equally suitable for all programmers. For beginners, Head First Java is still the best book to get started, and for the advanced Java developer, Effective Java is a nice book to start with.

10 Best Books to Learn Java Programming

Here is my collection of Java books that I suggest to every programmer who wants to learn Java. It contains books for both beginners and experienced programmers.

These books cover a variety of areas, including core Java fundamentals, the Java collection framework, multithreading and concurrency , JVM internals and performance tuning, design patterns , etc.

1. Head First Java

Many people will think that this is dated book, but to be honest Head First Java is the best book for any programmer who is new in both programming and Java. The head-first way of explanation is quite phenomenal and I really enjoyed their book.

Head First Java covers the essential Java programming knowledge about class, object, thread, collection, and language features, like Generics , Enums , variable arguments , or auto-boxing .

They also have some advanced section on Swing, networking, and Java IO, which makes them a complete package for Java beginners. This should be your first Java book you look at if you’re starting from scratch.

If you prefer online courses over books, then you can also check out Udemy’s Complete Java MasterClass course.

Disclaimer: this is not a free course, and I will receive compensation if you buy this course from Udemy or if you use any links to books listed here from Amazon.

2. Head First Design Patterns

The Head First Design Pattern is another top class Java book from the Head-First lab.

When I started reading this book back in 2006, I didn’t think much about design patterns, how they solve common problems, how to apply a design pattern, what benefits they provide, and all sort of basic things. But after reading this Java book, I have benefited immensely.

The first chapter on Inheritance and Composition , which is simply fantastic and promotes improved practices by introducing a problem and then the solution.

This book also contains helpful bullet points, exercises, and memory maps, which help you to understand design patterns quickly.

If you want to learn core Java design patterns and object-oriented design principles, this is the first Java book you should check out.

If you are looking for a course on GOF or object-oriented design patterns, I suggest you check out Design Pattern Library , one of the best courses I have attended on design patterns so far.

One point of good news about this book is that the new edition is updated for Java SE 8 , which will teach you how to develop classic GOF design pattern using Java 8 features, like lambda expressions , and streams .

3. Effective Java

Effective Java is one of the top Java books in my record and one of the most enjoyable. I have high regard for Joshua Bloch, the author, for his contribution to the Java collection framework and Java Concurrency package.

Effective Java is best for a seasoned or experienced programmer who is well versed in Java programming. It’s great for programmers who want to share their skill by following programming best practices and who are eager to listen to someone who contributed to the Java development kit (JDK).

Effective Java consists of a collection of Java programming best practices, ranging from static factories , serialization , equals , and hashcode to generics, enums, varargs, and reflection.

This Java programming book covers almost every aspect of Java in a slightly different way than you are used to.

A new edition was released last year that introduced features in the JDK 7, 8, and 9, which was released last year in September. It also has a full chapter on lambdas .

4. Java Concurrency in Practice

Java Concurrency in Practice is another classic from Joshua Bloch, Doug Lea, and team. This is the best Java book on concurrency and multi-threading — one of the must-reads for core Java developers.

The strengths of Concurrency Practice in Java include:

1) This book is very detailed and captures minor details of multi-threading and concurrency

2) Instead of focusing on core Java classes, this book focuses on concurrency issues and problems, like deadlock , starvation, thread-safety, race conditions, and present ways to solve them using Java concurrency classes.

This book is an excellent resource to learn and master Java concurrency packages and classes, like CountDownLatch , CyclicBarrier , BlockingQueue , or Semaphore . This is the biggest reason I like to read this Java book and read it again and again.

3) One more strong point of concurrency practice in Java is the no-nonsense examples; the examples in this book are clear, concise, and intelligent.

4) This book is also good at explaining what is wrong and why it's wrong and how to make it right, which is essential for any Java book to succeed.

In short, this is one of the best books to learn concurrency and multi-threading in Java. The content is definitely advanced from a beginner’s perspective, but surely, this is a must-read book for experienced Java programmers.

5. Java Generics and Collections

The Java Generics and Collection by Naftalin and Philip Wadler from O’Reilly is another good book on Java, which I initially forgot to include in my list but am including it now as requested by many readers.

I like this book because of its content on generics and collections, which are core areas of the Java language.

Having a strong knowledge of Java collections and Generics is expected from an experienced programmer, and these books help in that area.

It explains each collection interface like Set , List , Map , Queue, and their implementation, comparing how well they perform in a different situation.

I really loved their comparison chart at the end of each chapter, which gives you a good idea about when to use a particular Java collection class, like ArrayList , HashMap , or LinkedHashMap .

6. Java Performance From Binu John

This is another good book that teaches about JVM internals, garbage collection, JVM tuning, profiling. etc, and I highly recommend every senior Java developer read this book . This is also one of my personal favorites.

As we are moving gradually, we started from a beginners level to intermediate and now the senior level.

The Java Performance is all about performance monitoring, profiling, and tools used for Java performance monitoring.

This is not a usual programming book. Instead, it provides details about JVM , Garbage Collection , Java heap monitoring, and profiling application.

I loved their chapter on the JVM overview, and it’s a must read to learn more about JVM in simple language.

Both beginners and an intermediate programmer can benefit from this book, but it’s good to have some Java experience under your belt before reading it. So far, this is the best Java book on performance monitoring.

This is another must-read Java book if you are serious about performance.

There are a couple of new books available in Java, which cover JDK 1.7. To find out latest book on Java performance like Java Performance, The Definitive Guide by Scott Oaks , which is certainly worth checking out before buying this book.

If you need some guidance on solving memory and CPU issues, I suggest you to also take a look at Understanding and Solving Java Memory Problems course by Richard Warburton.

7. Java Puzzlers

Java Puzzlers is another book worth reading from Joshua Bloch, this time with Neal Gafter. This book is about corner cases and pitfalls in the Java programming language.

Java is safer and more secure than C++ , and the JVM does a good job to free the programmer from error-prone memory allocation and deallocation. But still, Java has corner-cases that can surprise even the experienced Java programmer.

This Java book presents such Java pitfalls and explains them in greater detail. This is a good Java book if you love puzzles — you can even include many of these in core Java interviews to check their Java knowledge.

I don’t rate it as high as Effective Java and Java Concurrency in Practice, but you can still give it a go, particularly to check your knowledge about Java and its corner cases, which will help you to answer some of the tricky Java questions from interviews.

In order to get most of this Java book, try to solve puzzles by yourself and then look into explanations to make your knowledge more concrete.

8. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design

Another good book on Java programming and design principles from the Head-First series. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design can be read in conjunction with Head First Design Patterns .

This book focuses on object-oriented design principles, like favor Composition over inheritance , programming for interface rather than implementation, DRY, etc.

One part of learning Java is writing good code and following the best practices, and this book is great in educating programmers about them.

Knowledge gained from this book is applicable to many object-oriented programming languages and will, overall, improve your understanding of code and OOP design principles .

9. Thinking in Java

Thinking in Java is written by Bruce Eckel, who is also the author of Thinking in C++ and uses his unique style to teach the Java concept.

Many would agree that this is one of the best Java books, with a strength being that is points to intelligent examples. This is one of the complete books in Java and can be used as a reference as well.

There is a chapter on Java memory mapped IO from Thinking in Java , which is my favorite.

If you don’t like the Head-First teaching style, but you need a beginners Java book with a plain example style, Thinking in Java is a good choice.

It is detailed, mature, and frequently updated, but, if you need more choices, you can check out these core Java books for beginners , as well.

10. Java SE 8 for the Really Impatient

This is one of the best books to learn Java 8. It is also my general purpose Java 8 books. If you have less time and you want to learn all important things about Java 8 , this is the book to refer to.

I don’t have to remind you about Cay. S. Horstmann’s writing skill, one of the best authors in Java and right up there with Joshua Bloch. I have found both of them highly readable.

You won’t feel bored, which programmers often do when they read technical books. It explains about lambda expression , Streams , functional interface , method references , new Java Date Time API and several other small enhancement like joining Strings, repeatable annotations, etc. In short, one of the best book to learn Java hands down.

Wrapping up

This was my list of top Java programming books . I have read all the books, some of them I am still reading and a couple of them, like Effective Java and the Head-First series, I have read a couple of times. Many programmers ask me which books they should start with and which Java book they should read now. I hope you found some good books in this collection. Happy reading!

Other Useful Resources to Learn Java Programming 10 Things Java Programmer Should Learn in 2019 10 Tools Every Java Developer Should Know 10 Reasons to Learn Java Programming languages 10 Frameworks Java and Web Developer should learn in 2019 10 Tips to become a better Java Developer in 2019 Top 5 Java Frameworks to Learn in 2019 10 Testing Libraries Every Java Developer Should Know

Closing Notes

Thanks for reading this article so far. You might be thinking that there is so much stuff to learn, so many courses to join, but you don’t need to worry.

There is a good chance that you may already know most of the stuff, and there are also a lot of useful free resources which you can use — I have also linked to them here and there along with the other resources, which are certainly not free, but worth of money.

I am a particular fan of Udemy courses as they are very affordable and provide a lot of values in a very small amount, but you are free to choose the course you want.

At the end of the day, you should have enough knowledge and experience from using the resources mentioned here.

Good luck with your Java journey! It’s certainly not going to be easy , but by following this roadmap and guide, you are one step closer to becoming the Java Developer you always wanted to be

If you like this article then please consider following me on medium ( javinpaul ). If you’d like to be notified for every new post, don’t forget to follow javarevisited on Twitter! Once again, all the best for your Java Development Journey and a Big thanks to all the authors for writing such awesome books. These top Java programming books are some of the best books to learn Java — I would even say that some of them are the best Java books ever published.

If this article was helpful, share it .

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Most Recommended Core Java Books for Serious Developers

• Effective Java (2nd edition)
• Thinking in Java (4th edition)
• Head First Java (2nd edition)
• Java Generics and Collections.

1. Effective Java (2 nd edition)

-           James Gosling , father of the Java programming language.

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2. Thinking in Java (4 th edition)

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3. Head First Java (2 nd edition)

• There are no dumb questions: questions and answers in conversational style that helps clearing out doubts and misunderstandings.
• Bullet points: summarize important points.
• Brain barbell, Brain Power: stick your brain with interesting questions.

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4. Java Generics and Collections

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Posted on Jul 31, 2020 • Updated on Sep 30, 2020

11 Best Java Books for Beginners and Senior Developers

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links; I may receive compensation if you purchase products or services from the different links provided in this article.

Hello guys, today is the world of online learning. Everyone is talking about learning from online training courses, Youtube, free courses on Coursera , Udemy and other websites, which is great as these courses to help you to learn faster, but, I believe books should still be an important part of your learning, as they provide the most in-depth knowledge and often written by the authority on the subject matter.

If you are learning Java Programming , then be ready to be introduced to some of the most awesome books to learn and master Java Programming in this article.

Whenever a Programmer starts learning the Java programming language, the first question they ask is, " Which book should I refer to learn Java? " or "What is the best book to learn Java for beginners?" or "Can you tell me some good books to learn Java?" That, itself, says how important Java books are for programmers, especially beginners.

Despite having so many free resources available in Java, like tutorials , online courses , tips , blogs , and code examples, Java books have their own place because:

• They are written by programmers who are an authority in the subject
• They cover the subject with more details and explanation.

These Java books are my personal favorites, and whenever I get some time, I prefer to read them to refresh my knowledge. Though I have read many of them already (I have read Effective Java at least four times so far), I always want to learn something new and my quest for great books never ends.

These books are some of the best available today and are equally useful for beginners, intermediate, and advanced Java programmers.

It doesn't matter whether you are completely new to Java or have been programming in Java for some time, you will learn a lot of new things through these books.

Having said that, not all books are equally suitable for all Java devs. For beginners, Head First Java is still the best book to get started, and for the advanced Java developer, Effective Java is a nice book to start with.

11 Best Books to Master Java Programming in Depth

Here is my collection of Java books that I suggest to every beginner and aspiring programmers who want to learn Java. It contains books for both beginners and experienced programmers.

These books cover a variety of areas, including core Java fundamentals, the Java collection framework, multithreading and concurrency , JVM internals and performance tuning, design patterns , etc.

1. Modern Java in Action

The Modern Java in Action by Raoul-Gabriel Urma, Mario Fusco, and Alan Mycroft is one of the must-read books for Java Programmers. It is not only the most up-to-date book as it covers changes on Java 8, 9, 10, and 11 but also it shows how do you write modern Java code now and coming years.

The book is actually a revised edition of Manning's best-seller Java 8 in Action which was focused on how to code in Java 8 using new features like lambdas, stream, options, and other interesting changes.

In addition to that, this book now covers changes in recent Java versions and includes new library features to support reactive programming, which eventually helps you in writing code that is easier to read and maintain.

If you like online courses over books then you can also check out Udemy's The Complete Java MasterClass course, which effectively complements this book and can speed up your learning.

2. Optimizing Java

Optimizing Java by Ben Evans is another good book that teaches about JVM internals, garbage collection, JVM tuning, profiling. etc, and I highly recommend every senior Java developer read this book. This is also one of my personal favorites.

As we are moving gradually, we started from a beginners level to intermediate and now the senior level. Optimizing Java is all about performance monitoring, profiling, and tools used for Java performance monitoring.

This is not the usual programming book. Instead, it provides details about JVM , Garbage Collection , Java heap monitoring, and profiling application.

Both beginners and an intermediate programmer can benefit from this book, but it's good to have some Java experience under your belt before reading it. So far, this is the best Java book on performance monitoring.

This is another must-read Java book if you are serious about performance.

If you need some guidance on solving memory and CPU issues, I suggest you also take a look at Understanding and Solving Java Memory Problems course by [Richard Warburton] and Java Application Performance and Memory Management by Matt GreenCroft on Udemy.

3. Head First Java

Many people will think that this is a dated book, but to be honest Head First Java is the best book for any programmer who is new in both programming and Java. The head-first way of explanation is quite phenomenal and I really enjoyed their book.

Head First Java covers the essential Java programming knowledge about class, object, thread, collection, and language features, like Generics , Enums , variable arguments , or auto-boxing .

They also have some advanced sections on Swing, networking, and Java IO, which makes them a complete package for Java beginners. This should be your first Java book you look at if you're starting from scratch.

If you prefer online courses over books, then you can also check out Udemy's Complete Java MasterClass course.

Disclaimer: this is not a free course, and I will receive compensation if you buy this course from Udemy or if you use any links to books listed here from Amazon.

4. Head First Design Patterns

The Head First Design Pattern is another top-class Java book from the Head-First lab.

When I started reading this book back in 2006, I didn't think much about design patterns, how they solve common problems, how to apply a design pattern, what benefits they provide, and all sorts of basic things. But after reading this Java book, I have benefited immensely.

The first chapter on Inheritance and Composition , which is simply fantastic and promotes improved practices by introducing a problem and then the solution.

This book also contains helpful bullet points, exercises, and memory maps, which help you to understand design patterns quickly.

If you want to learn core Java design patterns and object-oriented design principles, this is the first Java book you should check out.

One point of good news about this book is that the new edition is updated for Java SE 8 , which will teach you how to develop classic GOF design pattern using Java 8 features, like lambda expressions , and streams .

And, If you are looking for a course on GOF or object-oriented design patterns, I suggest you check out the Design Pattern Library and Design Pattern in Java by Dmitri Nestruk on Udemy, two of the best courses I have attended on design patterns so far.

5. Effective Java

Effective Java is one of the top Java books in my record and one of the most enjoyable. I have high regard for Joshua Bloch, the author, for his contribution to the Java collection framework and Java Concurrency package.

Effective Java is best for a seasoned or experienced programmer who is well versed in Java programming. It's great for programmers who want to share their skills by following programming best practices and who are eager to listen to someone who contributed to the Java development kit (JDK).

Effective Java consists of a collection of Java programming best practices, ranging from static factories , serialization , equals , and hashcode to generics, enums, varargs, and reflection.

This Java programming book covers almost every aspect of Java in a slightly different way than you are used to.

A new edition was released last year that introduced features in the JDK 7, 8, and 9, which was released last year in September. It also has a full chapter on lambdas .

6. Java Concurrency in Practice

Java Concurrency in Practice is another classic from Joshua Bloch, Doug Lea, and the team. This is the best Java book on concurrency and multi-threading, one of the must-reads for core Java developers.

The strengths of Concurrency Practice in Java include:

1) This book is very detailed and captures minor details of multi-threading and concurrency

2) Instead of focusing on core Java classes, this book focuses on concurrency issues and problems, like deadlock , starvation, thread-safety, race conditions, and present ways to solve them using Java concurrency classes.

This book is an excellent resource to learn and master Java concurrency packages and classes, like CountDownLatch , CyclicBarrier , BlockingQueue , or Semaphore . This is the biggest reason I like to read this Java book and read it again and again.

3) One more strong point of concurrency practice in Java is the no-nonsense examples; the examples in this book are clear, concise, and intelligent.

4) This book is also good at explaining what is wrong and why it's wrong and how to make it right, which is essential for any Java book to succeed.

In short, this is one of the best books to learn concurrency and multi-threading in Java. The content is definitely advanced from a beginner's perspective, but surely, this is a must-read book for experienced Java programmers.

Btw, if you find this book tough, which is quite obvious because Concurrency itself is a tough topic to digest then I suggest you take a look at the Java Concurrency in Practice Bundle , an online course by Java champion and Java instructor [Dr Heinz M. Kabutz], it will not only help you to better understand concepts. The course is a bit expensive but totally worth it.

7. Java Generics and Collections

The Java Generics and Collection by Naftalin and Philip Wadler from O'Reilly is another good book on Java, which I initially forgot to include in my list but am including it now as requested by many readers.

I like this book because of its content on generics and collections, which are core areas of the Java language.

Having a strong knowledge of Java collections and Generics is expected from an experienced programmer, and these books help in that area.

It explains each collection interface like Set , List , Map , Queue , and their implementation, comparing how well they perform in a different situation.

I really loved their comparison chart at the end of each chapter, which gives you a good idea about when to use a particular Java collection class, like ArrayList , HashMap , or LinkedHashMap .

8. Java Puzzlers

Java Puzzlers is another book worth reading from Joshua Bloch, this time with Neal Gafter. This book is about corner cases and pitfalls in the Java programming language.

Java is safer and more secure than C++ , and the JVM does a good job to free the programmer from error-prone memory allocation and deallocation. But still, Java has corner-cases that can surprise even the experienced Java programmer.

This Java book presents such Java pitfalls and explains them in greater detail. This is a good Java book if you love puzzles --- --- you can even include many of these in core Java interviews to check their Java knowledge.

I don't rate it as high as Effective Java and Java Concurrency in Practice , but you can still give it a go, particularly to check your knowledge about Java and its corner cases, which will help you to answer some of the tricky Java questions from interviews.

In order to get most of this Java book, try to solve puzzles by yourself and then look into explanations to make your knowledge more concrete.

9. Thinking in Java

Thinking in Java is written by Bruce Eckel, who is also the author of Thinking in C++ and uses his unique style to teach the Java concept.

Many would agree that this is one of the best Java books, with strength being that is points to intelligent examples. This is one of the complete books in Java and can be used as a reference as well.

There is a chapter on Java memory-mapped IO from Thinking in Java , which is my favorite.

If you don't like the Head-First teaching style, but you need a beginner's Java book with a plain example style, Thinking in Java is a good choice.

It is detailed, mature, and frequently updated, but, if you need more choices, you can check out these core Java books for beginners , as well.

10. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design

Another good book on Java programming and design principles from the Head-First series. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design can be read in conjunction with Head First Design Patterns .

This book focuses on object-oriented design principles, like favor Composition over inheritance , programming for interface rather than implementation, DRY, etc.

One part of learning Java is writing good code and following the best practices, and this book is great in educating programmers about them.

Knowledge gained from this book is applicable to many object-oriented programming languages and will, overall, improve your understanding of code and OOP design principles .

And, if you need an online training course to go with this book, I would recommend SOLID Principles: Introducing Software Architecture & Design course by Sujith George on Udemy. It will teach you how to use SOLID Principles and write clean and well-designed code in Object-Oriented Languages like Java

11. Java SE 8 for the Really Impatient

This is one of the best books to learn Java 8. It is also my general-purpose Java 8 books. If you have less time and you want to learn all the important things about Java 8 , this is the book to refer to.

I don't have to remind you about Cay. S. Horstmann's writing skill, one of the best authors in Java and right up there with Joshua Bloch. I have found both of them highly readable.

You won't feel bored, which programmers often do when they read technical books. It explains about lambda expression , Streams , functional interface , method references , new Java Date Time API and several other small enhancement like joining Strings, repeatable annotations, etc. In short, one of the best book to learn Java hands down.

Wrapping up

This was my list of top Java programming books . I have read all the books, some of them I am still reading and a couple of them, like Effective Java and the Head-First series , I have read a couple of times. Many programmers ask me which books they should start with and which Java book they should read now. I hope you found some good books in this collection. Happy reading!

Other Useful Resources to Learn Java Programming The 2020 Java Developer RoadMap 10 Things Java Programmer Should Learn in 2020 10 Tools Every Java Developer Should Know 10 Reasons to Learn Java Programming languages 10 Frameworks Java and Web Developer should learn in 2020 10 Tips to become a better Java Developer in 2020 Top 5 Java Frameworks to Learn in 2020 10 Testing Libraries Every Java Developer Should Know

Closing Notes

Thanks for reading this article so far. You might be thinking that there is so much stuff to learn, so many courses to join, but you don't need to worry.

There is a good chance that you may already know most of the stuff, and there are also a lot of useful free resources which you can use. I have also linked to them here and there along with the other resources, which are certainly not free, but worth of money.

I am a particular fan of Udemy courses as they are very affordable and provide a lot of values in a very small amount, but you are free to choose the course you want.

At the end of the day, you should have enough knowledge and experience from using the resources mentioned here.

Good luck with your Java journey! It's certainly not going to be easy , but by following this roadmap and guide, you are one step closer to becoming the Java Developer you always wanted to be

If you like this article then please consider following me on Twitter ( javinpaul ). If you'd like to be notified of every new post, don't forget to follow javarevisited on Twitter!

Once again, all the best for your Java Development Journey and a Big thanks to all the authors for writing such awesome books. These top Java programming books are some of the best books to learn Java, I would even say that some of them are the best Java books ever published.

P. S. --- If you prefer online courses over books, here is a list of best Java courses for aspiring Java programmers.

Top comments (7)

Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use.

• Education Masters in Computer and Information systems
• Work SDE at Amazon
• Joined Apr 2, 2023

Hey javinpaul, thanks for sharing this. Going through the blog itself make it clear of your great understanding of the the topics and your great skill on summarizing them. Thank to your blog that helped me to resolve a race condition that my team is trying to resolve for a long time and I recommend everyone to take a look at Java Concurrency in Practice and see the broad picture on Amdahl’s law that explains how parallel computing is not the only solution to achieve higher performance and how a better understanding of synchronization can be helpful in achieving a greater performance of applications by eliminating the race conditions.

• Location Belgium
• Work Technical Writer at Azul
• Joined May 25, 2020

Can I add a 12th one :-)

In "Getting Started with Java on Raspberry Pi", you'll learn to combine Java, JavaFX, a Raspberry Pi and electronic components to program soft- and hardware in multiple easy examples --> webtechie.be/books/ (available as ebook and paperbook)

• Email [email protected]
• Location Mexico
• Education Self taught
• Work DevOps Engineer at Oracle
• Joined Jan 11, 2020

Thank you very much for sharing :)

Does the courses mentioned in the 4. Head First Design Patterns cover most / everything from the book?

Or should I read the book and follow the video? I kinda want to buy this book

• Joined Sep 16, 2018

The book and course are independent to each other. I mostly learned from the book because I learned a year ago but when I watched this course to refresh my knowledge, I learn more modern implementations which kind of compliment my learning. You can start with the book and then watch the course for in-depth learning.

• Joined Jun 10, 2021

Thank you so much for sharing all this wonderful information !!!! It is so appreciated!! You have good humor in your blogs. So much helpful and easy to read! Java Training in Pune

• Joined Aug 24, 2023

Thanks for sharing valuable information with us. Java Course in Solapur

• Joined Jan 4, 2023

Thanks for the information. Also, check Java course in Nagpur

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Table of contents.

• Copyright Page
• Contents at a Glance
• The Birth of Modern Programming: C
• C++: The Next Step
• The Stage Is Set for Java
• The C# Connection
• Java Applets
• Portability
• Java’s Magic: The Bytecode
• Moving Beyond Applets
• A Faster Release Schedule
• Servlets: Java on the Server Side
• Object-Oriented
• Multithreaded
• Architecture-Neutral
• Interpreted and High Performance
• Distributed
• The Evolution of Java
• A Culture of Innovation
• Two Paradigms
• Abstraction
• The Three OOP Principles
• Entering the Program
• Compiling the Program
• A Closer Look at the First Sample Program
• A Second Short Program
• The if Statement
• The for Loop
• Using Blocks of Code
• Identifiers
• The Java Keywords
• The Java Class Libraries
• Java Is a Strongly Typed Language
• The Primitive Types
• Integer Literals
• Floating-Point Literals
• Boolean Literals
• Character Literals
• String Literals
• Declaring a Variable
• Dynamic Initialization
• The Scope and Lifetime of Variables
• Java’s Automatic Conversions
• Casting Incompatible Types
• The Type Promotion Rules
• One-Dimensional Arrays
• Multidimensional Arrays
• Alternative Array Declaration Syntax
• Some var Restrictions
• A Few Words About Strings
• The Basic Arithmetic Operators
• The Modulus Operator
• Arithmetic Compound Assignment Operators
• Increment and Decrement
• The Bitwise Logical Operators
• The Left Shift
• The Right Shift
• The Unsigned Right Shift
• Bitwise Operator Compound Assignments
• Relational Operators
• Short-Circuit Logical Operators
• The Assignment Operator
• The ? Operator
• Operator Precedence
• Using Parentheses
• The For-Each Version of the for Loop
• Local Variable Type Inference in a for Loop
• Nested Loops
• Using break
• Using continue
• The General Form of a Class
• A Simple Class
• A Closer Look at new
• Assigning Object Reference Variables
• Adding a Method to the Box Class
• Returning a Value
• Adding a Method That Takes Parameters
• Parameterized Constructors
• Instance Variable Hiding
• Garbage Collection
• A Stack Class
• Overloading Constructors
• Using Objects as Parameters
• A Closer Look at Argument Passing
• Returning Objects
• Introducing Access Control
• Understanding static
• Introducing final
• Arrays Revisited
• Introducing Nested and Inner Classes
• Exploring the String Class
• Using Command-Line Arguments
• Overloading Vararg Methods
• Varargs and Ambiguity
• Local Variable Type Inference with Reference Types
• Member Access and Inheritance
• A More Practical Example
• A Superclass Variable Can Reference a Subclass Object
• Using super to Call Superclass Constructors
• A Second Use for super
• Creating a Multilevel Hierarchy
• When Constructors Are Executed
• Method Overriding
• Why Overridden Methods?
• Applying Method Overriding
• Using Abstract Classes
• Using final to Prevent Overriding
• Using final to Prevent Inheritance
• Local Variable Type Inference and Inheritance
• The Object Class
• Defining a Package
• Finding Packages and CLASSPATH
• A Short Package Example
• An Access Example
• Importing Packages
• Defining an Interface
• Implementing Interfaces
• Nested Interfaces
• Applying Interfaces
• Variables in Interfaces
• Interfaces Can Be Extended
• Default Method Fundamentals
• Multiple Inheritance Issues
• Use static Methods in an Interface
• Private Interface Methods
• Final Thoughts on Packages and Interfaces
• Exception-Handling Fundamentals
• Exception Types
• Uncaught Exceptions
• Displaying a Description of an Exception
• Multiple catch Clauses
• Nested try Statements
• Java’s Built-in Exceptions
• Creating Your Own Exception Subclasses
• Chained Exceptions
• Three Additional Exception Features
• Using Exceptions
• Thread Priorities
• Synchronization
• The Thread Class and the Runnable Interface
• The Main Thread
• Implementing Runnable
• Extending Thread
• Choosing an Approach
• Creating Multiple Threads
• Using isAlive( ) and join( )
• Using Synchronized Methods
• The synchronized Statement
• Suspending, Resuming, and Stopping Threads
• Obtaining a Thread’s State
• Using a Factory Method to Create and Start a Thread
• Using Multithreading
• Enumeration Fundamentals
• The values( ) and valueOf( ) Methods
• Java Enumerations Are Class Types
• Enumerations Inherit Enum
• Another Enumeration Example
• The Numeric Type Wrappers
• Autoboxing and Methods
• Autoboxing/Unboxing Occurs in Expressions
• Autoboxing/Unboxing Boolean and Character Values
• Autoboxing/Unboxing Helps Prevent Errors
• A Word of Warning
• Annotation Basics
• Specifying a Retention Policy
• Obtaining Annotations at Run Time by Use of Reflection
• The AnnotatedElement Interface
• Using Default Values
• Marker Annotations
• Single-Member Annotations
• The Built-In Annotations
• Type Annotations
• Repeating Annotations
• Some Restrictions
• Byte Streams and Character Streams
• The Predefined Streams
• Reading Characters
• Reading Strings
• Writing Console Output
• The PrintWriter Class
• Reading and Writing Files
• Automatically Closing a File
• The transient and volatile Modifiers
• Using instanceof
• Native Methods
• Assertion Enabling and Disabling Options
• Static Import
• Invoking Overloaded Constructors Through this( )
• A Word About Compact API Profiles
• What Are Generics?
• Generics Work Only with Reference Types
• Generic Types Differ Based on Their Type Arguments
• How Generics Improve Type Safety
• A Generic Class with Two Type Parameters
• The General Form of a Generic Class
• Bounded Types
• Bounded Wildcards
• Generic Constructors
• Generic Interfaces
• Raw Types and Legacy Code
• Using a Generic Superclass
• A Generic Subclass
• Run-Time Type Comparisons Within a Generic Hierarchy
• Overriding Methods in a Generic Class
• Type Inference with Generics
• Local Variable Type Inference and Generics
• Bridge Methods
• Ambiguity Errors
• Type Parameters Can’t Be Instantiated
• Restrictions on Static Members
• Generic Array Restrictions
• Generic Exception Restriction
• Lambda Expression Fundamentals
• Functional Interfaces
• Some Lambda Expression Examples
• Block Lambda Expressions
• Generic Functional Interfaces
• Passing Lambda Expressions as Arguments
• Lambda Expressions and Exceptions
• Lambda Expressions and Variable Capture
• Method References to static Methods
• Method References to Instance Methods
• Method References with Generics
• Constructor References
• Predefined Functional Interfaces
• A Simple Module Example
• Compile and Run the First Module Example
• A Closer Look at requires and exports
• java.base and the Platform Modules
• Legacy Code and the Unnamed Module
• Exporting to a Specific Module
• Using requires transitive
• Service and Service Provider Basics
• The Service-Based Keywords
• A Module-Based Service Example
• Module Graphs
• Open Modules
• The opens Statement
• requires static
• Linking Files in an Exploded Directory
• Linking Modular JAR Files
• A Brief Word About Layers and Automatic Modules
• Final Thoughts on Modules
• The String Constructors
• String Length
• String Concatenation
• String Concatenation with Other Data Types
• String Conversion and toString( )
• getChars( )
• getBytes( )
• toCharArray( )
• equals( ) and equalsIgnoreCase( )
• regionMatches( )
• startsWith( ) and endsWith( )
• equals( ) Versus ==
• compareTo( )
• Searching Strings
• substring( )
• trim( ) and strip( )
• Data Conversion Using valueOf( )
• Changing the Case of Characters Within a String
• Joining Strings
• Additional String Methods
• StringBuffer Constructors
• length( ) and capacity( )
• ensureCapacity( )
• setLength( )
• charAt( ) and setCharAt( )
• delete( ) and deleteCharAt( )
• Additional StringBuffer Methods
• StringBuilder
• Double and Float
• Understanding isInfinite( ) and isNaN( )
• Byte, Short, Integer, and Long
• Additions to Character for Unicode Code Point Support
• Memory Management
• Executing Other Programs
• Runtime.Version
• ProcessBuilder
• Using currentTimeMillis( ) to Time Program Execution
• Using arraycopy( )
• Environment Properties
• System.Logger and System.LoggerFinder
• Using clone( ) and the Cloneable Interface
• ClassLoader
• Trigonometric Functions
• Exponential Functions
• Rounding Functions
• Miscellaneous Math Methods
• The Runnable Interface
• ThreadGroup
• ThreadLocal and InheritableThreadLocal
• ModuleLayer
• RuntimePermission
• SecurityManager
• StackTraceElement
• StackWalker and StackWalker.StackFrame
• The CharSequence Interface
• The Comparable Interface
• The Appendable Interface
• The Iterable Interface
• The Readable Interface
• The AutoCloseable Interface
• The Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler Interface
• java.lang.annotation
• java.lang.instrument
• java.lang.invoke
• java.lang.management
• java.lang.module
• java.lang.ref
• java.lang.reflect
• Collections Overview
• The Collection Interface
• The List Interface
• The Set Interface
• The SortedSet Interface
• The NavigableSet Interface
• The Queue Interface
• The Deque Interface
• The ArrayList Class
• The LinkedList Class
• The HashSet Class
• The LinkedHashSet Class
• The TreeSet Class
• The PriorityQueue Class
• The ArrayDeque Class
• The EnumSet Class
• Using an Iterator
• The For-Each Alternative to Iterators
• Spliterators
• Storing User-Defined Classes in Collections
• The RandomAccess Interface
• The Map Interfaces
• The Map Classes
• Using a Comparator
• The Collection Algorithms
• The Enumeration Interface
• Using store( ) and load( )
• Parting Thoughts on Collections
• StringTokenizer
• Optional, OptionalDouble, OptionalInt, and OptionalLong
• GregorianCalendar
• SimpleTimeZone
• Timer and TimerTask
• The Formatter Constructors
• The Formatter Methods
• Formatting Basics
• Formatting Strings and Characters
• Formatting Numbers
• Formatting Time and Date
• The %n and %% Specifiers
• Specifying a Minimum Field Width
• Specifying Precision
• Using the Format Flags
• Justifying Output
• The Space, +, 0, and ( Flags
• The Comma Flag
• The Uppercase Option
• Using an Argument Index
• Closing a Formatter
• The Java printf( ) Connection
• The Scanner Constructors
• Scanning Basics
• Some Scanner Examples
• Setting Delimiters
• Other Scanner Features
• The ResourceBundle, ListResourceBundle, and PropertyResourceBundle Classes
• Miscellaneous Utility Classes and Interfaces
• java.util.concurrent, java.util.concurrent.atomic, and java.util.concurrent.locks
• java.util.function
• java.util.jar
• java.util.logging
• java.util.prefs
• java.util.regex
• java.util.spi
• java.util.stream
• java.util.zip
• The I/O Classes and Interfaces
• Directories
• Using FilenameFilter
• The listFiles( ) Alternative
• Creating Directories
• The AutoCloseable, Closeable, and Flushable Interfaces
• I/O Exceptions
• Two Ways to Close a Stream
• The Stream Classes
• InputStream
• OutputStream
• FileInputStream
• FileOutputStream
• ByteArrayInputStream
• ByteArrayOutputStream
• Filtered Byte Streams
• Buffered Byte Streams
• SequenceInputStream
• PrintStream
• DataOutputStream and DataInputStream
• RandomAccessFile
• CharArrayReader
• CharArrayWriter
• BufferedReader
• BufferedWriter
• PushbackReader
• PrintWriter
• The Console Class
• Serializable
• Externalizable
• ObjectOutput
• ObjectOutputStream
• ObjectInput
• ObjectInputStream
• A Serialization Example
• Stream Benefits
• The NIO Classes
• Charsets and Selectors
• The Path Interface
• The Files Class
• The Paths Class
• The File Attribute Interfaces
• The FileSystem, FileSystems, and FileStore Classes
• Use NIO for Channel-Based I/O
• Use NIO for Stream-Based I/O
• Use NIO for Path and File System Operations
• Networking Basics
• The java.net Networking Classes and Interfaces
• Factory Methods
• Instance Methods
• Inet4Address and Inet6Address
• TCP/IP Client Sockets
• URLConnection
• HttpURLConnection
• The URI Class
• TCP/IP Server Sockets
• DatagramSocket
• DatagramPacket
• A Datagram Example
• Three Key Elements
• A Simple HTTP Client Example
• Things to Explore in java.net.http
• Two Event Handling Mechanisms
• Event Sources
• Event Listeners
• The ActionEvent Class
• The AdjustmentEvent Class
• The ComponentEvent Class
• The ContainerEvent Class
• The FocusEvent Class
• The InputEvent Class
• The ItemEvent Class
• The MouseEvent Class
• The MouseWheelEvent Class
• The TextEvent Class
• The WindowEvent Class
• Sources of Events
• The ActionListener Interface
• The AdjustmentListener Interface
• The ComponentListener Interface
• The ContainerListener Interface
• The FocusListener Interface
• The ItemListener Interface
• The KeyListener Interface
• The MouseListener Interface
• The MouseMotionListener Interface
• The MouseWheelListener Interface
• The TextListener Interface
• The WindowFocusListener Interface
• The WindowListener Interface
• Some Key AWT GUI Concepts
• Handling Mouse Events
• Handling Keyboard Events
• Adapter Classes
• Anonymous Inner Classes
• AWT Classes
• Setting the Window’s Dimensions
• Hiding and Showing a Window
• Setting a Window’s Title
• Closing a Frame Window
• The paint( ) Method
• Displaying a String
• Setting the Foreground and Background Colors
• Requesting Repainting
• Creating a Frame-Based Application
• Drawing Lines
• Drawing Rectangles
• Drawing Ellipses and Circles
• Drawing Arcs
• Drawing Polygons
• Demonstrating the Drawing Methods
• Sizing Graphics
• Color Methods
• Setting the Current Graphics Color
• A Color Demonstration Program
• Setting the Paint Mode
• Determining the Available Fonts
• Creating and Selecting a Font
• Obtaining Font Information
• Managing Text Output Using FontMetrics
• Adding and Removing Controls
• Responding to Controls
• The HeadlessException
• Handling Buttons
• Handling Check Boxes
• CheckboxGroup
• Handling Choice Lists
• Handling Lists
• Handling Scroll Bars
• Handling a TextField
• Using a TextArea
• BorderLayout
• Using Insets
• GridBagLayout
• Menu Bars and Menus
• Dialog Boxes
• A Word About Overriding paint( )
• File Formats
• Creating an Image Object
• Loading an Image
• Displaying an Image
• Double Buffering
• MemoryImageSource
• PixelGrabber
• CropImageFilter
• RGBImageFilter
• Additional Imaging Classes
• java.util.concurrent
• java.util.concurrent.atomic
• java.util.concurrent.locks
• CountDownLatch
• CyclicBarrier
• A Simple Executor Example
• Using Callable and Future
• The TimeUnit Enumeration
• The Concurrent Collections
• Atomic Operations
• The Main Fork/Join Classes
• The Divide-and-Conquer Strategy
• A Simple First Fork/Join Example
• Understanding the Impact of the Level of Parallelism
• An Example that Uses RecursiveTask<V>
• Executing a Task Asynchronously
• Cancelling a Task
• Determining a Task’s Completion Status
• Restarting a Task
• Things to Explore
• Some Fork/Join Tips
• The Concurrency Utilities Versus Java’s Traditional Approach
• Stream Interfaces
• How to Obtain a Stream
• A Simple Stream Example
• Reduction Operations
• Using Parallel Streams
• Use an Iterator with a Stream
• Use Spliterator
• More to Explore in the Stream API
• Regular Expression Syntax
• Demonstrating Pattern Matching
• Two Pattern-Matching Options
• Exploring Regular Expressions
• A Simple Client/Server Application Using RMI
• DateFormat Class
• SimpleDateFormat Class
• Time and Date Fundamentals
• Formatting Date and Time
• Parsing Date and Time Strings
• Other Things to Explore in java.time
• The Origins of Swing
• Swing Is Built on the AWT
• Swing Components Are Lightweight
• Swing Supports a Pluggable Look and Feel
• The MVC Connection
• The Top-Level Container Panes
• The Swing Packages
• A Simple Swing Application
• Event Handling
• Painting Fundamentals
• Compute the Paintable Area
• A Paint Example
• JLabel and ImageIcon
• JToggleButton
• Check Boxes
• Radio Buttons
• JTabbedPane
• JScrollPane
• Menu Basics
• Create a Main Menu
• Add Mnemonics and Accelerators to Menu Items
• Add Images and Tooltips to Menu Items
• Use JRadioButtonMenuItem and JCheckBoxMenuItem
• Create a Popup Menu
• Create a Toolbar
• Use Actions
• Put the Entire MenuDemo Program Together
• Continuing Your Exploration of Swing
• What Is a Java Bean?
• Advantages of Beans
• Design Patterns for Properties
• Design Patterns for Events
• Methods and Design Patterns
• Using the BeanInfo Interface
• Bound and Constrained Properties
• Persistence
• Customizers
• Introspector
• PropertyDescriptor
• EventSetDescriptor
• MethodDescriptor
• A Bean Example
• The Life Cycle of a Servlet
• Servlet Development Options
• Using Tomcat
• Create and Compile the Servlet Source Code
• Start Tomcat
• Start a Web Browser and Request the Servlet
• The Servlet API
• The Servlet Interface
• The ServletConfig Interface
• The ServletContext Interface
• The ServletRequest Interface
• The ServletResponse Interface
• The GenericServlet Class
• The ServletInputStream Class
• The ServletOutputStream Class
• The Servlet Exception Classes
• Reading Servlet Parameters
• The HttpServletRequest Interface
• The HttpServletResponse Interface
• The HttpSession Interface
• The Cookie Class
• The HttpServlet Class
• Handling HTTP GET Requests
• Handling HTTP POST Requests
• Using Cookies
• Session Tracking
• @deprecated
• {@inheritDoc}
• {@linkplain}
• @serialData
• @serialField
• The General Form of a Documentation Comment
• What javadoc Outputs
• An Example that Uses Documentation Comments
• JShell Basics
• List, Edit, and Rerun Code
• Add a Method
• Create a Class
• Use an Interface
• Evaluate Expressions and Use Built-in Variables
• Some More JShell Commands
• Exploring JShell Further
• Appendix C Compile and Run Simple Single-File Programs in One Step

Product information

• Title: Java: The Complete Reference, Eleventh Edition, 11th Edition
• Author(s): Herbert Schildt
• Release date: December 2018
• Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
• ISBN: 9781260440249

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9 Best Java Books for Beginners in 2023

Java is a powerful general-purpose programming language that was initially developed at Sun Microsystems in 1995. It's one of the most commonly used programming languages in the world and is used by millions of developers. Java is known for being applicable across a wide range of contexts and on almost every kind of computer imaginable. 

There are so many great Java programming books out there for beginners. Choosing the right book is important as it can guide your learning. In this article, we have compiled a list of the best Java books for beginners through a collection of book reviews.

Each book review will highlight the taste of the book, the contents covered, and how it can benefit you. 

Why Learn Java?

Is Java a good programming language to start with? Is it a good first language for beginners? Well, there are lots of reasons for beginners to learn Java. Here are a couple of reasons why learning Java is a great investment in your future. 

Here are some of the reasons you may want to learn Java:

Beginner-Friendly

Java is easy to learn and is beginner-friendly. It has fluent English like syntax with minimum magic characters e.g., Generics angle brackets. Once a programmer is familiar with initial hurdles, it’s quite easy to write a program in Java.

Independent

Java language is independent of platforms, so you can run Java code on any device.

Low Barrier to Access

All beginner programmers prefer free things. Since Java is free from the start, you don't need to pay anything to create a Java application.

The sky is the limit for what you can build with Java. It can be used for a large number of things, including software development, mobile applications, and large systems development. 

Java has a rich API, and you can do a lot more with Java including graphics, sound, and most likely writing small games.

Java is everywhere! It is used for the Internet of Things and APIs, in big data technologies, e-commerce websites, high-frequency financial trading platforms, and scientific applications. 

Career Opportunity

If you want to boost your career opportunities and income, you can get tons of jobs opportunity by learning the Java programming language.

Java has strong and thriving community support and you will find great learning resources online to polish your skills.

What Makes the Best Java Books?

To help you in selecting a well-structured and latest Java book for beginners, we have narrowed it down to the top 9 best Java books for beginners.  

Here are our criteria for the selection of books:

The book should contain a variety of instructional materials, including exercises, examples, questions, learning activities, and other features that promote a programmer’s engagement and active learning.

It must have a structured, clear, and logical progression of topics.

Content must be up-to-date and should thoroughly teach and explain the basic concepts of Java programming language.

Use clear, precise, and easy-to-understand language.

The book should have a clear layout and must be friendly toward self-taught programmers.

Best Books on Java

Books make up the primary mode of learning. With so many books out there to learn Java, the readers are left confused deciding which one to buy.

Here are several excellent books for learning Java:

1. Best Book for Pragmatists: Learning Java: An Introduction to Real-World Programming with Java

Learning Java: An Introduction to Real-World Programming with Java by Marc Loy, Patrick Niemeyer, and Daniel Leuck contains everything you need to become a master of Java programming language. As you go through the book, you will develop a deep understanding of the fundamentals of Java 11 and its APIs.

There are thirteen chapters, and they are written and structured in such a way to make the concepts crystal clear for you. You will get no problems moving ahead to the next ones.

As you go through the book, you will be able to:

Develop with Java, using the compiler, interpreter, and other tools

Explore Java’s built-in thread facilities and concurrency package

Learn text processing and the powerful regular expressions API

Write advanced networked or web-based applications and services

If you’re new to Java, this book will help you to learn core Java language features included in recent Java versions. You will know powerful new ways to learn the Java language, its class libraries, programming techniques, and idioms. 

The book contains fun, compelling, and realistic examples that make it easy to read. You can learn the basics of the language as well as some useful programming techniques and new trends in Java.

2. Best Book for Completionists: Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days

Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days by Rogers Cadenhead cover Java 11/12 and is a must-read book for every Java developer. If you are just getting started with Java, you can acquire the knowledge and skills from this book that are necessary to develop applications on your computer, web servers, and mobile devices. 

The book is divided into twenty-one lessons. They are well designed and simple to understand and will make it almost effortless for you to understand the topics. The contents covered in these lessons are:

Lesson 1 covers an introduction and how to get started with Java

Lesson 2 talks about the ABC of programming

Lesson 3 guides you in working with objects

Lesson 4 covers Lists, Logic, and Loops

Lesson 5 talks about Creating Classes and Methods

Lesson 6 covers Packages, Interfaces, and Other Class Features

Lesson 7 talks about Exceptions and Threads

Lesson 8 covers Data Structures

Lesson 9 talks about creating a Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Lesson 10 guides you on building an Interface

Lesson 11 talks about arranging Components on a User Interface

Lesson 12 guides you on responding to User Input

Lesson 13 talks about Creating Java2D Graphics

Lesson 14 covers Developing Swing Applications

Lesson 15  talks about using Inner Classes and Lambda Expressions

Lesson 16 covers Streams and working with Input and Output

Lesson 17 covers networking in Java and Communicating Over HTTP

Lesson 18 guides you on Accessing Databases with JDBC and Derby

Lesson 19 covers Reading and Writing RSS Feeds

Lesson 20 guides you in making Web Service Requests

Lesson 21 talks about writing a Game with Java

Each lesson ends with a Workshop section filled with questions, answers, and exercises for further study. No previous programming experience is required. You will quickly master the basics and then move on to more advanced features and concepts. This book is completely updated for Java 11 and 12 and is an absolute stepping stone for a budding programmer.

3. Best Book for Quick Start: Java in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference

Java in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference by Benjamin J. Evans and David Flanagan has everything that a novice developer needs to know.  The updated seventh edition covers versions 9 through 11.

The book has thirteen chapters and is divided into two sections. The first section provides a fast-paced, no-fluff introduction to the Java programming language and the core runtime aspects of the Java platform. The second section is a reference to core concepts and APIs that explains how to perform real programming work in the Java environment.

The contents covered in these chapters are:

Chapter 1 covers an introduction to the Java Environment

Chapter 2 covers Java Syntax from the Ground Up

Chapter 3 talks about Object-Oriented Programming in Java

Chapter 4 talks about the Java Type System

Chapter 5 covers an introduction to Object-Oriented Design in Java

Chapter 6 covers Java’s Approach to Memory and Concurrency

Chapter 7 covers Programming and Documentation Conventions

Chapter 8 guides you in working with Java Collections

Chapter 9 guides you in Handling Common Data Formats

Chapter 10 covers File Handling and I/O

Chapter 11 covers Classloading, Reflection and Method Handles

Chapter 12 covers Java Platform Modules

Chapter 13 covers platform-tools

The book has a brief and good presentation with a good description of modern tools. So if you are on a journey to master Java, this book is a perfect match for you.

More books you may like:

4. Best Book for Deep Divers: Java: A Beginner's Guide 

Java: A Beginner's Guide  by Herbert Schildt will deepen your understanding of Java origins and its relations to other programming languages. It comes with extensive hands-on exercises as well as a quiz section at the end of each chapter. 

The book covers all concepts pertains to Core Java and the latest edition is fully revised to include Java 11 SE. The book has sixteen chapters and the topics covered in the book are:

Chapter 1 covers Java Fundamentals

Chapter 2 introduces Data Types and Operators

Chapter 3 covers Program Control Statements

Chapter 4 introduces Classes, Objects, and Methods

Chapter 5 talks about More Data Types and Operators

Chapter 6 gives a closer look at Methods and Classes

Chapter 7 covers Inheritance

Chapter 8 covers Packages and Interfaces

Chapter 9 talk about Exception Handling

Chapter 10 covers concepts about using I/O

Chapter 11 covers Multithreaded Programming

Chapter 12 covers Enumerations, Autoboxing, Static Import and Annotations

Chapter 13 talks about Generics

Chapter 14 talks about Lambda Expressions and Method References

Chapter 15 covers Modules

Chapter 16 introduces Swing

So if you are on a journey to master Java, then this is the book I would recommend.

5. Best Book for Easy learning: Java For Dummies

Java For Dummies by Dr. Barry Burd has everything that a novice developer needs to know. You will learn the major things you need to start with Java coding and can easily write a program by reading examples step-by-step.

The book is comprised of 560 pages and covers many questions and exercises to reinforce your understanding of Java. The reader will find step-by-step instructions on handling Java classes and methods, understanding the value of variables, and controlling program flow. As you go through the book, you will be able to:

Discover the latest features and tools in Java 9

Learn to combine several smaller programs to create a bigger program

Create basic Java objects and reuse code

Confidently handle exceptions and events

This book is well-structured and easy to understand. For starters, it is simple and kind of fun to read. 

6. Best for Generalists: Modern Programming Made Easy: Using Java, Scala, Groovy, and JavaScript

Modern Programming Made Easy: Using Java, Scala, Groovy, and JavaScript by Adam Davis guides you to learn programming in an easy, non-stressful way. The book mainly covers Java with some references to Groovy, Scala, and JavaScript. It teaches you basic coding principles, including working with lists, sets, arrays, and maps; coding in the object-oriented style; and writing a web application. 

The book gives you a broad range of examples to consider. You will get a taste of what modern programming has to offer and set yourself up for further study and growth in your chosen language. The book is divided into twenty-one chapters that are well designed and simple to understand. As you go through the book, you will be able to:

Write code using the functional programming style

Build your code using the latest releases of Java, Groovy, and more

Test your code

Read and write from files

Design user interfaces

Deploy your app in the cloud

This book is suitable for anyone who wants to learn how to code. 

7. Best Book for Java Fundamentals: Core Java Volume 1 - Fundamentals

Core Java Volume 1 - Fundamentals is an eleventh edition written by Cay S. Horstmann. This reference book for Java offers detailed explanations of Core Java. Readers will learn more about exception handling, interfaces, and lambda expressions.

Other highlights of this Java programming book include simple language and conciseness, and it offers detailed real world examples.

Core Java Volume 1 allows Java programmers to develop the ability to write robust and maintainable code.

Other content regarding Java concepts readers can find in this reference book includes:

Foundational techniques, idioms, and best practices

Shows you how to leverage the power of interfaces, lambda expressions, and inner classes

Learn how to write safer and more usable code

Teaches how to build cross-platform GUIs with the Swing toolkit

8. Best Book for Practical Guidance: Effective Java

Effective Java by Joshua Bloch is a good book to have if you are an ardent Java developer or programmer looking to refine your skills or aspire to learn more efficient Java code. The Effective Java book covers 78 best practices that help make Java programming concepts and coding easier to understand.

There are 11 distinct sections covered in this book including Java Concurrency, Generics, and Methods. These programming basics make it easier for the reader to grasp. Effective Java is also suitable for Java programmers of any skill level—from Java beginners to experienced Java programmers.

This complete reference guide includes sections on the following, providing you with more in-depth knowledge:

Creating and destroying objects

Methods common to all objects

Classes and interfaces

Enums and annotations

Lambdas and streams

General programming

Java concurrency utilities

Serialization

9. Best Book for Those Starting Their Java Journey: Head First Java

Head First Java Second Edition by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates is often referred to as the Java programming bible. It is one of the best-selling Java books of all time because it provides readers access to information every Java programmer needs to know.

Most of the best Java programming books these days target those further along in their Java journey. However, the Head First design patterns in this book take problems into consideration that many beginning programming learners run into.

Head First Java includes vintage pictures, puzzles, code exercises, brain teasers, and so much more, allowing for more effective learning while providing a better basic understanding of Java language syntax.

Among its many chapters, you will find:

Chapter One: Breaking the Surface

Chapter Two: A Trip to Objectville

Chapter Three: Know Your Variables

Chapter Four: How Objects Behave

Chapter Five: Extra-Strength Methods

Chapter Six: Using the Java Library

Chapter Seven: Better Living in Objectville

Chapter Eight: Serious Polymorphism

Chapter Nine: Life and Death of an Object

Chapter Ten: Numbers Matter

Chapter Eleven: Risky Behavior

Chapter Twelve: A Very Graphic Story

Chapter Thirteen: Work on Your Swing

Chapter Fourteen: Saving Objects

Chapter Fifteen: Make a Connection

Chapter Sixteen: Data Structures

Chapter Seventeen: Release Your Code

Chapter Eighteen: Distributed Computing

Can You Really Learn Java from a Book?

Yes! If you are serious about learning Java, you can learn a ton of essential Java programming knowledge about class, object, thread, collection, and language features from some of the best Java books available.

Make sure you choose a book that provides you with a thorough introduction to the world of Java and takes you along with practical, real world examples.

More Ways to Learn Java

Aiming to learn Java quickly and efficiently? Our brain responds well to multiple forms of input, which is why pairing your book with an interactive course will boost your learning substantially.

Here are some great courses to consider:

Codecademy:

Has tons of free and premium (‘Pro’), interactive courses on Java. Courses include building Android apps, studying for the (Java-based) Computer Science AP exam, studying for the technical interview in Java, and more. For a full list of Java courses, see Codecademy Java . For more on Codecademy Pro, see my Codecademy Pro review .

Java Programming: Solving Problems with Software is a highly-rated course provided by the world-class, prestigious school, Duke University.

Java Programming Masterclass for Software Developers is an insanely packed course with over 80 hours of video instruction and over 140,000 five-star reviews. If you want to buy one class and one class only, this is it. The course is constantly being updated and kept fresh.

I hope these course recommendations are valuable for you. But if you’re on a budget, I have also compiled over 70 free learning resources for you to check out. I hope you enjoyed this article and look forward to seeing you in the next one.

Miranda is the founder of Books on Code , with a mission to bring book-lover culture to programmers. Learn more by checking out Miranda on LinkedIn .

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Best Java Books for Beginners to Advanced Programmers

For mastering the Java programming language, most experienced Java programmers advocate reading books. The books include in-depth and accurate information. This is significant since Java is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world, as it can be used to create customized programmes for a wide range of applications.

In this blog, you will come across the top 15 best books that are in use to learn the Java programming language. There are three categories in which these books are divided: 

• Beginner: for the absolute beginners
• Intermediate: for those who have some knowledge of the Java basics.
• Advanced: for those who want to get in-depth knowledge of Java and apply their learnings to advance their career.

Best Java Books for Begineers

1. head first java, 2. java: a beginner’s guide , 3. core java volume i – fundamentals, 4. beginning programming with java for dummies, 5. java: programming basics for absolute beginners, best java books for intermediate, 6. effective java, 7. java: the complete reference , 8. thinking in java, 9. java 8 in action, 10. cracking the coding interview, best java books for advanced, 11. java in a nutshell: a desktop quick reference, 12. oca java se 8, 13. java puzzler: traps, pitfalls, and corner cases, 14. the java language specification, 15. head first design patterns, additional resources.

Author Name: Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates Latest edition: Second edition Ratings: 4.2 / 5 (Goodreads)

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You’ll love this beginner’s book if you simply can not understand a clear explanation without appropriate schemes, diagrams, or graphics. Head First Java delves into practically all OOPS ideas and explains them in a fascinating way. It offers a user-friendly involvement that will keep you captivated from the first page to the last. You’ll have no trouble grasping the logic of the language and its main concepts that will help you begin with your coding hands-on. Exercises and riddles are included at the end of each chapter to aid in memorization.

Author Name: Herbert Schildt Latest Edition: Eighth edition Ratings: 3.9 / 5 (Goodreads)

It is one of the most comprehensive Java books available. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of programming can benefit from Java: A Beginner’s Guide. The Java book covers all of Core Java’s ideas. It will help you better understand the roots of Java and how it relates to other programming languages. The author has also done an amazing job of keeping the book up to date; for example, the 7th Edition currently includes Java 9. A self-test portion at the end of each chapter is a fantastic feature of this book.

Author Name: Cay S. Horstmann Latest Edition: Eleventh edition Ratings: 4.2 / 5 (Goodreads)

Core Java Volume-I is the book for you if you wish to learn the fundamentals of Java programming. For more quick and exploratory creation, this book employed a novel Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL). Each chapter covers a specific topic, beginning with an introduction to the language and the Java programming environment and progressing to data structures, objects, and classes, among other topics. Reflection, Proxies, ClassLoader, and other subjects are covered in detail in this fundamentals book. Unlike many beginner’s books, Core Java covers collections and generics explicitly, which is useful in real-world programming.

Author Name: Barry Burd Latest Edition: Seventh edition Ratings: 3.8 / 5 (Goodreads)

This book will show you how to develop a programme in Java, how to connect various elements together, and how to deal with common programming issues in Java, among other things. They clarify the major terms simply and clearly due to the basic language. After you finish the reading, you will understand the most important things you need to know to get started with Java coding, such as how to install Java, compile code, and complete various practical exercises. You’ll also learn how to set up the Eclipse IDE step by step, so you can start coding right away. This book includes numerous questions and exercises to help you strengthen your knowledge of Java.

Author Name: Nathan Clark Ratings: 5/5 (Goodreads)

This is another book for readers with no prior coding expertise that will walk you through the basics step-by-step. You’ll discover how to pick an IDE and develop your first programme. An easy-to-understand introduction to Java programming and its primary features. You’ll learn the fundamentals of Java while working through 57 real-world examples. Each topic, such as Data Types, Variables, Constants, Operators, Type Conversion, Loops, Decision Making, and so on, is illustrated with various examples.

Author Name: Joshua Bloch Latest Edition: Third edition Ratings: 4.5 / 5 (Goodreads)

If you have a basic understanding of Java programming, you can use this book to study more in-depth as this book is not for complete beginners. A novel design pattern, annotations, autoboxing, and other subjects are covered in the book. It will assist you in gaining a thorough understanding of the seventy-eight programmer’s rules of thumb, which are practical answers to a variety of programming problems. Each chapter has “items” with a wealth of practical guidance and a thorough examination of the most recent Java features. It will show you how to write code correctly and efficiently.

Author Name: Herbert Schildt Latest Edition: Eleventh edition Ratings: 4.2 / 5 (Goodreads)

It is the most frequently recommended book by many Java programmers, as well as by colleges for their students. It contains excellent information on Java language syntaxes, the Java 8 API, JavaBeans, servlets, applets, swing, and other topics. It is widely available on the market, with a PDF version available for download. It’s a well-organized, full-featured source on Java programming that includes real-world examples. An introduction to JShell, Java’s interactive programming tool, is also included. The book is packed full of talks and practical examples that will help you learn Java faster.

Author Name: Bruce Eckel Latest Edition: Fourth edition Ratings : 4.2 / 5 (Goodreads)

You will get compelled to think in Java as a result of this book. The book starts with the fundamentals of OOPs and progresses to more complex topics such as concurrency management, XML, and design patterns, among others. It includes as many easy and brief examples as possible. Each part will keep you focused on the task at hand. It will assist you in covering new ground. It’s one of those books that you’ll refer to again and again, even if you’ve been studying and coding for years. It motivates you to develop and teaches you how to think like a Java programmer.

Author Name: Raoul-Gabriel Urma, Mario Fusco, and Alan Mycroft Ratings: 4.3 / 5 (Goodreads)

It will be easier for you to comprehend the subject if you have some prior knowledge of Java. But it’s the book’s many-sidedness of practise that makes it so appealing. There are both “correct” and “wrong” code samples in the examples. Java 8 in Action is a written guide to all of Java 8’s new features. Lambdas, streams, and functional programming are all covered in this book. You may now write more concise code in less time thanks to Java 8’s functional capabilities, and you’ll instantly benefit from multicore systems. The new Streams API is then covered, along with how to leverage it to make collection-based applications much easier to comprehend and maintain.

Author Name: Gayle Laakmann McDowell Latest Edition: Sixth edition Ratings: 4.4 / 5 (Goodreads)

Cracking the Coding Interview is a guide on navigating the interview process at software behemoths. It teaches you everything you need to know and allows you to give your finest performance. It explains how to find hints and hidden subtleties in a question, how to break down a problem into digestible bits, how to unstick yourself when you get stuck, how to learn key computer science principles, and how to practice on 189 interview questions and solutions. Although the book is written in Java, the code is quite understandable, so it can be treated as pseudocode.

Author Name: Ben Evans and David Flanagan Latest Edition: Seventh edition Ratings: 3.8 / 5 (Goodreads)

This new edition of Java in a Nutshell not only assists experienced Java programmers in getting the most out of Java 9 through 11, but it also serves as a learning path for novice developers. This newly rewritten book, which contains new content on Java Concurrency Utilities, is jam-packed with examples that show how to take full advantage of modern Java APIs and development best practices. Generics, enumerations, annotations, and lambda expressions can all be explored. Understand the fundamentals of object-oriented design. Examine the relationship between concurrency and memory. Handle popular data formats and work with Java collections.

Author Name: Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates, Elisabeth Robson Ratings: 4.3 / 5 (Goodreads)

The OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-808) comprises two comprehensive, accurate practise tests written by developers of the original Sun Certified Java Programmer exam. In total, there are over 250 practise questions in the book and an additional 160 sample exam questions in the digital content that are similar in topic, tone, and format to those on the actual test. You must be familiar with Java and have practical experience with it before reading this book. If you’re brand new to the Java programming language, I recommend starting with an introductory book and then moving on to this one.

Author Name: Joshua Bloch, Neal Gafter Ratings: 4.2 / 5 (Goodreads)

In the form of puzzles, this book explains the inner workings of the Java programming language. It has over 500 problems that are all based on Java programming. Because this is an advanced-level book, you must be conversant with the Java programming language. The majority of the riddles are in the form of a short program with unexpected behavior. The puzzles are loosely organised by the features they employ, with detailed answers following each puzzle. The solutions go beyond a basic explanation of the program’s behaviour, showing you how to permanently avoid the underlying traps and dangers.

Author Name: James J. Gosling, Bill Joy, Jr. Steele, Guy L., Gilad Bracha, Alex Buckley, Guy L. Steele Jr. Latest Edition: Eleventh edition Ratings: 4 / 5 (Goodreads)

It accurately and thoroughly explains both fundamental and advanced ideas. It goes over all of the new features included in Java SE 8. Lambda expressions, default methods, type annotations, and repeated annotations are among the new features in Java SE 8. The book also offers numerous explanatory comments that clearly separate the formal rules of the language from compiler behavior. Before using this book, you’ll need a fundamental understanding of java or another object-oriented language, but once you do, this book will become your bible. There are no extra words in this book to fill up the pages.

Author Name: Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Robson with Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates Latest Edition: Second edition Ratings: 4.3 / 5 (Goodreads)

For building flawless Java programs, a solid understanding of OOP and design patterns is required. One of the most popular books for developing that specific understanding of the Java programming language is Head First Design Patterns. With Design Patterns, you can make use of other people’s best practices and experiences so you can focus on something more difficult. Something a little more enjoyable. This book explains the patterns that matter, when and why to use them, how to apply them to your ideas, and the object-oriented design principles that underpin them.

So, you’ve come across some excellent books that are essential for any Java developer or aspiring Java developer. Finally, best of luck with your Java programming endeavours. It won’t be easy, but reading these books will provide you with some valuable experience.

Which book is best for learning Java? The first recommendation is still Head First Java because it is the best book to learn Java. Any beginner who aspires to learn Java can opt for this book.

Is Java difficult for beginners? Java is quite simple to learn when compared to other programming languages. It isn’t easy, but if you put forth the effort, you can learn it quickly.

Should I learn Java or JavaScript? Both languages are heroes in their respective fields. Java is a general-purpose programming language that can construct anything, whereas JS is still mostly a web technology.

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Best java books for beginners, best java books for experienced developers, ready to learn more, 10 best java books for 2024.

Java is an object-oriented programming language designed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1991. It is used to design light and fast applications that serve a variety of purposes. According to the TIOBE Index , Java is among the top three programming languages. No matter where you are on your developer journey, there are tons of resources out there to help you improve your Java knowledge. Here is a list of the best Java books for both beginners and experienced developers .

Check out the video below that talks about the right books to learn java step-by-step for both professionals and beginners.

1. Head First Java  

Authors: Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates

Cost: $38.50

Head First Java is referred to as the Java programming bible by most readers and is probably the best Java book for beginners. It contains all the essential Java programming subjects - classes , threads , objects, collection, and language features. The information is presented in visually rich formats containing puzzles and games, which makes Java very easy to understand. Additionally, it also comprises a number of interviews with professional Java programmers who share their secrets to Java so that beginners can learn it faster. If you’re completely new to Java, this is the first book worth investing in.

2. Java: A Beginner’s Guide

Author: Herbert Schildt

Cost: $35.68

Another perfect book for beginners is Java: A Beginner’s Guide by Herbert Schildt. It covers all the fundamentals of Java , followed by tests and puzzles to test your knowledge. You will also find lots of Q&As from professional Java programmers who give insights related to issues most beginners face. Best of all, it is written in a clear, crisp, and simple style for easy learning.

3. Java for Dummies 

Author:  Barry A. Burd

Java for Dummies is a great beginner’s guide to Java programming that teaches you how to create basic Java objects and when you should simply reuse existing code. The biggest advantage of this book is its abundance of images and screenshots that visually explains how Java code is executed on the CPU. This book also explains the differences between byte code and source code generated by the compiler. 

4. Effective Java  

Author: Joshua Bloch

Cost: $42.49

Effective Java is a must-have book for entry-level and advanced programmers alike. It contains numerous programming issues encountered by every programmer and concrete explanations on how to solve them. Whenever you feel stuck programming, this book shifts your perspective to handling any problem. The best part about this new edition is that it is updated with all the latest concepts for Java 7, 8, and 9. 

5. Head First Design Patterns  

Author: Eric Freeman

Cost: $32.38

Understanding design patterns is a valuable skill for any Java programmer out there. Head First Design Patterns covers many useful tools and exercises for a faster understanding of design patterns. It includes lessons learned by professionals who have faced the same software design problems. If you are a beginner looking to learn core design patterns and object-oriented design principles, this book is for you.

6. Spring in Action  

Author: Craig Walls and Ryan Breidenbach

Cost: $39.51

Spring Framework is a Java platform that provides infrastructure support for developing applications. Spring in Action will guide you through Spring’s core features and help you build secure Java applications step-by-step. You will also learn about microservices, reactive programming, RESTful APIs, service discovery, and best practices from experts. It also contains the latest Spring best practices, including Spring Boot to set up and configure applications. Whether you’re a beginner in Spring or trying to level up, this classic book is your ticket!

7. Clean Code 

Author: Robert C. Martin

Cost: $25.33

Clean Code is another classic for Java programmers. Anyone can learn to code, but it takes practice to write clean code. When code is poorly written, you can lose countless hours and significant resources. This book teaches you to read code and challenges you to think about what’s right and wrong about that code. It is divided into three parts - principles, patterns, and practices of writing clean code, case studies in cleaning up code, and the heuristics gathered while creating the case studies. 

8. Test Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers 

Author: Lasse Koskela

Cost: $28.78

If you are a Java developer looking to write unique automation testing programs, Test-Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers is an excellent resource. It explores the techniques and mindset of both Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) using examples in Java and the Java EE environment. It offers effective and less well-known techniques for both beginners and advanced TDD developers.

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9. Test-Driven Java Development

Author: Alex Garcia and Viktor Farcic

Cost: $49.99

Test-Driven Java Development will help you embrace all the techniques of TDD with Java in your day-to-day routine. It contains a number of practical problems, each one designed to help you understand every aspect of TDD. You will also learn about refractor old legacy code, working with mocks, designing simple code, and utilizing behavior-driven development. If you are a professional Java developer looking to implement more effective methods of programming systems and applications, this is the book for you.

10. Thinking in Java  

Author: Bruce Eckel

Cost: $9.99

Thinking in Java is considered as one of the most complete Java books containing everything from the fundamentals to advanced topics. The latest edition covers several topics of Java 8 features in detail. It serves as an excellent resource for intermediate and advanced developers serious about object-oriented programming. 

Most of these Java books offer detailed and in-depth subject knowledge to enhance your knowledge in this field. Although you won’t turn into a professional coder overnight just by reading these Java books, they will definitely help you in enhancing your knowledge of Java.  If you want to learn more, you can sign up for Simplilearn’s Post Graduate Program in Full Stack Web Development in collaboration with Caltech CTME to accelerate your career as a software developer. This course will help you master both front-end and back-end Java technologies, starting with the basics and progressing to the advanced aspects of full-stack web development. Sign up for this course today and become a full-stack technologist! 

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Top 20 Java Programming Books From Beginner To Advanced

Java is the original Sun Microsystems programming language and it’s been around the block for well over two decades. This can be used for anything from games to mobile apps, desktop software, and enterprise programs for servers.

If you’re hoping to dive into Java then you’ll have a long road ahead. Thankfully there are tons of great resources that can make that road a bit easier to walk, and in this post I’ve organized the best books to aid you on that journey.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or trying to improve your existing Java knowledge there’s something in this list for you.

Best Beginner Java Book

Head first java.

Currently in its 2nd edition, Head First Java is one of the simplest ways to dive into the complex Java programming language.

The book teaches you how to write code by working on fun examples like games, quizzes, and fun little apps. You’ll learn about networking and OOP techniques all through repetition and fun practice work.

And you’ll find a ton of enlightening interviews with professional Java programmers where they share secrets of the language to help beginners learn the ropes faster. Once you know which pitfalls to avoid you’ll have a much easier time working through projects.

You do not need to know anything before picking up this book. It’ll guide you the entire way through and by the end you’ll feel much more comfortable writing code from scratch.

Java: A Beginner’s Guide

One other introductory guide I really like is Java: A Beginner’s Guide by Herbert Schildt. This is just about the same length totaling 700+ pages and it covers all the fundamentals in an easy-to-read manner.

You’ll start with the key skills like basic Java syntax, compiling, and application planning. From there you’ll dive into live actionable lessons that force you to think about the main constructs behind Java code.

Each chapter has a series of quizzes that force you to practice what you’ve learned and prove your knowledge. If you ever hit a chapter that seems tough it’s easy enough to go back through it again to re-test your knowledge.

Plus you’ll find a ton of Q&A sections from professional Java programmers who talk about the language’s quirks and difficulties that most beginners face.

Overall a very detailed book covering a lot about Java, although it may be a bit too technical for beginners to grasp. It works well if you’re willing to put in the work and Google questions along the way.

Java SE8 for the Really Impatient

Many programming books are huge and overly-technical which can put off newcomers. Java SE8 for the Really Impatient is the complete opposite with a shorter page length and a simpler writing style.

This book specifically covers Java SE8 and the new features that come along with it. Lambda expressions, annotations, and JavaFX are all covered in detail along with many other facets of the language.

You’ll also learn about concurrent programming techniques and how these change in the SE8 release(and later). It’s a very detailed guide so this probably isn’t the best book for complete beginners.

However if you at least have some Java experience and want to pick up the latest techniques then this book is a fun read that’ll cover everything you need to know.

Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies

The “for dummies” books are rarely worth the money if you already have some experience writing code. But for absolute beginners these books are often perfect because they’re written clearly in plain English without too many confusing terms.

Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies is currently in its 4th edition covering all the fundamentals of basic Java programming. You’ll learn how to install Java, how to run & compile code, and how to practice different lessons on your own to continue learning after you complete the book.

Since Java isn’t naturally object oriented this is a very in-between book. It covers some OOP ideas but it’s also a very raw look into the Java language.

Don’t expect to become an expert after flipping through these exercises. They are all fairly simple and you’ll learn quickly that Java programmers always have more to learn.

Yet as a simple introduction that’s easy to follow along with I would certainly recommend a copy of this book.

Core Java Volume I

This is one of the longest running books in my list and it’s currently in its 10th edition with a full revised rewrite for the Java SE8 update.

Core Java Volume I is a massive book spanning over 1,000 pages worth of theory, exercises, and detailed expressions to help you learn how Java operates.

This first volume is part of a 2-volume set but this book is really the best for beginners. It covers a history of Java along with the absolute basics of setting up the environment and running code. The author also explains how to use Eclipse and the fundamentals of basic programming(event handling, inheritance, generic programming, etc).

The writing style is definitely more technical than you might expect. But if you’re okay with the length and depth of this guide you’ll walk away feeling more empowered than any other book can offer.

Sams Teach Yourself Java

Here we have one of the best intro books to Java you can find based on writing style alone. Sams Teach Yourself Java posits that you can teach yourself the entire language in 24 hours.

I’ll admit this is certainly an exaggeration, but the idea behind this title holds true. You can teach yourself Java quickly by following the easy-to-digest lessons in this book.

Each exercise takes you through writing a program and how it all works. Then you’ll learn how to analyze the entire process and apply those concepts to future exercises. A big part of writing Java is understanding the theory that helps you write the program.

How you solve the problem is typically the first step. After that you think about how you’ll write the code to enact your solution, and this book is great at making you think about the entire process before ever writing a line of code.

A top recommendation for beginners and maybe even for semi-experienced coders who want to understand Java a bit more in-depth.

Learn Java in One Day and Learn It Well

Learn Java in One Day and Learn It Well by Jamie Chan is an excellent example of how a shorter book can cover a lot of ground. This title is only 230 pages long yet it really delves into the Java landscape explaining how it works and how to write code.

Some people with more technical backgrounds prefer the lengthier manuals. But for your average Joe trying to pick up Java those can be too much, and that’s one of the best reasons to consider a book like this.

Over a handful of exercises you’ll learn how to install Java, write some programs, and study the code to see what makes it tick. You’ll also delve OOP concepts right away making this book a solid resource for modern-day Java work.

The name is again somewhat of a misnomer because you probably won’t learn Java in one day with this book. However the idea behind the name stands true so it’s a nice resource for complete beginners to pick up some reasonable info.

Murach’s Beginning Java with Eclipse

Presentation is everything with teaching because it’s crucial how you reach the reader and how you explain things. Murach’s Beginning Java with Eclipse teaches Java with code pairings and explanations that help you understand how each line of code functions.

The book is pretty lengthy clocking in just under 700 pages. But it’s also a pretty simple read that teaches you how to follow clean Java development with practical exercises.

With each chapter you’ll be introduced to new coding concepts by studying snippets of code. The author places blocks of code on one page while adding explanations to the other page. This way you can literally see line for line what your code is doing once it’s compiled.

From basic strings to OOP protocols and I/O data, this book spans the gamut of Java topics with a clean writing style and an excellent presentation method. Perfect for absolute beginners who want to learn Java the right way.

Java Programming 24-Hour Trainer

One difference about this self-proclaimed “learn in a day” book is that it also comes with video materials. That alone might sway some people towards this book because it comes with supplementary materials.

But Java Programming 24-Hour Trainer is a reasonable intro for beginners and it comes with a very straightforward writing style. Each lesson is pretty short which makes it feel like you’re moving through topics quicker than usual.

This is great for newbies because it encourages them to keep going and it builds confidence along the way. Later chapters do get a bit more difficult with topics on databases and multithreading.

Still I think this book offers a fine line between a college-level resource and a self-taught resource for beginners. If you do get this try to avoid the Kindle version because the code snippets are tough to read with the digital format.

Java 8 in Action

Currently Java 8 is the most recent version so any book covering this language is well worth the investment. Java 8 in Action teaches you how to code Java by focusing more on practice rather than theory.

It’s a pretty lengthy guide spanning 420 pages with dozens of exercises and walkthroughs. You’ll learn new concepts in a step-by-step manner that help you glean best practices for Java 8 code.

One thing to note is that many code examples showcase what not to do alongside the “proper” code samples. This can be very annoying since you may not recognize which example is the correct one to follow.

But if you read carefully and work through the lessons one step at a time there shouldn’t be any confusion.

If you are a complete beginner this can be a decent guide, although you’ll need to do some research on your own to fill in the blanks. I more recommend this for semi-experienced beginners who want to learn Java 8 and bring their skills up a level.

Java Performance: The Definitive Guide

Performant code is a difficult topic because it’s slightly different with each language. Java is one of those legacy programming languages that still has a lot of use today, so there are many different ways to improve your codebase depending on what you’re building.

Java Performance: The Definitive Guide looks at Java performance using the Java Virtual Machine along with APIs for testing. You’ll learn how to properly test your code the same way engineers and professional programmers do.

Each chapter covers a different scenario and/or technique you can apply into your own work. The book explains a lot of performance-oriented concepts like threading and synchronization. You’ll learn how to incorporate these ideas into your typical coding workflow to make your projects a whole lot faster.

From Java EE to databases and custom API projects, you’ll find a little bit of everything in this 426-page resource. Just make sure you already have some basic Java knowledge before getting this book or you’ll be horrendously confused before page 1.

Java Programming

This is one of the more expensive books on Java and it’s been around for quite a while. Currently in its 9th edition with almost a massive 1,000 page binding, Java Programming forces you to perform exercises and guides you through various concepts with real-world scenarios.

The author Joyce Farrell is big into object-oriented programming so her take on Java is very specific. She covers a lot of the basics in this book and she starts with OOP code right away.

You’ll learn how to check for syntax errors, how to debug properly, add Java classes and even how to build your own classes.

It does read very much like a college textbook so I can’t recommend this for novice coders. But if you feel comfortable pushing outside your comfort zone with technical lessons then Joyce’s book is phenomenal.

TCP/IP Sockets in Java

You can do a lot with TCP/IP connections and working over a network with Java. The book TCP/IP Sockets in Java offers a look into the basics of networking and how to use this in everyday project work.

It’s an absolute blast to read through and this is generally considered standard reading for sockets in Java. You’ll learn all the typical libraries for sockets and UDP Java programming.

Later in the book you’ll even delve into the technicalities of TCP/IP work and how this all functions on the computer’s OS. This knowledge is crucial to help you craft sturdy and secure applications which makes this book a godsend for newbies.

Just make sure you already have a bit of Java under your belt so you can understand the lessons. Once you’re ready to learn about sockets this is the best book to grab.

Java Network Programming

A somewhat related title is Java Network Programming by Elliotte Rusty Harold. Currently in its 4th edition this book is fully updated for Java 8 and covers a lot of detail surrounding Java networking.

The Java network API is a huge topic and thankfully this book doesn’t assume you know anything about it. The very first chapter covers a bunch of vocabulary which you can always flip back to if you forget a term.

As you work through the lessons you’ll learn about streams, threading, IP connections and working with HTTP proxies. You’ll also learn how to cache websites and work with sockets for both client & server machines.

Java is a powerful language and you can do pretty much everything with it. This means the networking aspect is truly limitless so there’s always more to learn.

Keep this book in mind if you’re hoping to nail down Java networking for practical uses.

Java Generics and Collections

One of the biggest updates to Java is the addition of generics . These generics and classes let developers create specific methods & classes with just one declaration.

These changed how Java works and the book Java Generics and Collections is the ultimate introduction to this topic.

You don’t need to know anything about this subject before starting. The book is very well-written and it targets beginners who aren’t familiar with any of the concepts. You’ll learn through examples and plenty of code snippets that explain the process of building generics in real projects.

You don’t need to have any mastery of Java to understand this topic. In fact, generics and collections are both covered in beginner books(although not in detail).

But just make sure you at least feel comfortable writing simple programs before grabbing this book. It’s fairly simple to work through if you’re already comfortable using Java a little bit.

Java Concurrency in Practice

Another newer concept that all programmers need to learn is concurrency. This practice can radically improve the performance of your applications and make your codebase a whole lot lighter.

Java Concurrency in Practice takes many techniques from concurrent programming and merges them into one book. You’ll learn through tons of practice exercises how Java concurrency works and how to use this in your code.

The book is a bit older so it does cover a bit more on Java 6 rather than the newest version. However I still think this is one of the best book son concurrency because it’s explained so matter-of-factly without too much technical fluff.

Bottom line this book is not out of date regardless of the Java version or the publishing year. It’s still just as relevant as ever and if you’re dying to jump into concurrency this is the only resource you’ll need.

Learning Reactive Programming With Java 8

Asynchronous programming like reactive programming is a big topic for higher-level languages such as Java. This also isn’t a big topic you can easily find online beyond snippets from blog posts and opinions from industry leaders.

To really delve into reactive work you should pick up Nickolay Tsvetinov’s Learning Reactive Programming With Java 8 . It covers a lot of the core Java features but also delves into related libraries such as RxJava .

Testing and debugging are crucial to reactive programs and these topics get a lot of attention in this book. Concurrency is also a major topic since this all relates to data processing and data streams.

Plus this book is fully updated for Java 8 so you’ll learn about many of the newest functional features. Just note that while this book is pretty thorough it’s also very small with only 177 pages.

I’d call this more of a primer on reactive Java rather than a complete guide. It’s still an excellent way to get started and the code samples are more than worth the price tag.

RESTful Java with JAX-RS 2.0

A while back I covered the best books on RESTful programming which mostly relate to web APIs. But Java takes REST to a whole new level and this book is the definitive guide on the subject.

RESTful Java with JAX-RS 2.0 covers more practical techniques over theory so you can actually learn how this works in the real world. RESTful services are everywhere these days and it’s one of the most popular architectures around.

Through these lessons you’ll learn how to connect into REST APIs and how to create your own from scratch. This includes plenty of detail on JAX-RS which is the go-to resource for Java REST work.

Most topics cover web concepts like caching and authentication through Oauth. But you’ll also learn about server setups and how RESTful applications run on the web.

I’d call this a must-buy resource if you’re even remotely interested in RESTful development on Java.

Java Web Services: Up and Running

Here’s a nice companion book to the previous REST book since they both cover web services.

Java Web Services: Up and Running teaches you how to design webapps using both REST and SOAP methodologies. This book also focuses on a very practical style of teaching where you learn by writing code and solving bugs.

Various tools and 3rd party services are covered in detail including HttpServlet and Restlet along with the JAX-RS APIs. You’ll also touch upon some jQuery concepts for JS APIs and how those fit into the web services framework.

Whether you want to build a Java Application Server or just want to connect into Twitter’s API for a small web service, this book has you covered with everything you’ll ever want to know.

Java Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Java Developers

The single cookbook I recommend for all developers is Ian F. Darwin’s Java Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Java Developers .

This cookbook is currently in its 3rd edition with a total of 900 pages jam-packed with helpful recipes. You’ll find information on everything from date functions to lambda code and the newer JavaFX 8 API.

Custom networking, mobile app development, server-side applications, pretty much every subject under the sun gets some coverage in this cookbook. It’s the perfect resource to keep on your bookshelf or on your desk while building new projects.

Each recipe is self-contained so you can flip through and jump around with ease. Just make sure you at least understand the basics of Java before getting this book since it does cover a lot of technical ideas.

Anyone who’s brand new to Java should start with a really simple book. Java: A Beginner’s Guide is my first pick although Sams Teach Yourself Java is also excellent.

As you advance you’ll typically want to break into different areas depending on what you want to create. Some Java programmers want to build enterprise applications. Others want to build Android apps and some want to create Java-powered web services.

Regardless of your goals I’d guarantee there’s at least one book here that can further your progress. Take another look over the list and see if any specific titles jump out.

Author: Jaime Morrison

Jaime is a jr. designer interested in mobile UI/UX research and frontend web development with JavaScript frameworks. He covers general news and useful resources in the web design space.

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10 Best Java Books for Beginners and Advanced Programmers

Posted in BOOKS /   JAVA

Ramya Shankar Last updated on May 18, 2024

Table of Content

Are you a novice willing to learn Java or a seasoned programmer wishing to hone your skills and looking for the best resources? You must not miss out on the books. This article lists the classic Java books one must read to learn and champion the language.

Java is a well-known programming language developed in the year 1995 by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems. It has made a remarkable place in the programming world, and today, it is ranked as one of the top programming languages . It is majorly utilized for developing back-end, web and Android applications, machine learning projects , and big data applications.

The platform-independent feature enables us to write the code once for any platform and run it on other platforms having Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. Therefore, ‘Write Once, Run Anywhere’ is the primary objective of Java.

Another reason for the widespread popularity of the language is that it is an object-oriented programming language, which means developers can create clean code with a neat structure. In fact, all the significant features of Java contribute to its popularity.

Hence, learning Java opens up a lot of career opportunities. There are multiple resources to learn the language. However, books cannot replace anything.

In this article, we will discuss the 10 most popular Java books that can help you learn the language fundamentals and hone your language skills.

10 Best Java Books for All Skill Levels - From Novice to Ninja

Let us now explore some of the best options available for Java books for beginners and seasoned programmers.

1. Effective Java (3rd Edition)

• Author: Joshua Bloch
• Publisher: Addison Wesley
• Paperback Print Length: 416 pages

Let's start our list of the best Java books with Effective Java, an ideal book for beginners and intermediate-level developers willing to learn the language. The author explains new design patterns and language idioms, including Lambda, streams, generics and collections, and Java 9 features.

The book provides in-depth insights into different concepts of Java, Java platform subtleties, and new code examples. It also covers updated techniques and best practices on objects, classes, methods, and serialization. You can find techniques to avoid pitfalls of the language’s commonly misunderstood subtleties.

Furthermore, the book focuses on explaining fundamental Java libraries, such as java.lang, java.util, java.util.concurrent, and java.io.

You can buy this book from here .

2. Java - The Complete Reference (12th Edition)

• Author: Herbert Schildt
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Paperback Print Length: 1,248 pages

As the name suggests, this book is a comprehensive guide to beginners covering the entire Java language, including syntax, keywords, and the principles of programming. The 12th edition of the book is fully updated for Java SE 17. It throws light on some important portions of the Java API library, including the I/O, Collections Framework, concurrency utilities, and stream library.

Furthermore, the author has focused on explaining Swing, servlets, and JavaBeans with demonstrated examples. He discusses the recent additions to the language, such as records, sealed classes, and switch expressions.

The best feature of this book is the author has explained all concepts in a crisp, uncompromising, and clear style, making it a choice among millions of individuals worldwide.

3. Java Concurrency in Practice (1st Edition)

• Author: Tim Peierls, Doug Lea, Brain Goetz, David Holmes, Joshua Bloch, and Joseph Bowbeer
• Publisher: Pearson Education India
• Paperback Print Length: 403 pages

Java Concurrency in Practice is one of the must-have Java books to develop an in-depth understanding of concepts like concurrency and multithreading. However, some concepts in this book may be challenging for beginners to understand quickly.

This Java book not only allows you to understand all theoretical concepts of concurrency and multithreading but also assists in developing scalable, maintainable, and reliable concurrent applications. You will learn patterns, mental models, and design rules to develop concurrent Java programs effortlessly and efficiently.

The authors have also described various approaches to developing thread-safe classes, do’s and don'ts for performance optimization, and how to test concurrent programs. The book also covers high-level concepts, like Java Memory Model, nonblocking algorithms, and atomic variables.

4. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design (1st Edition)

• Author: David West, David Mclaughlin, and Gary Pollice
• Publisher: Shroff/O’Reilly
• Paperback Print Length: 648 pages

No list of best Java books is complete without Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design. This book will help you learn how to analyze, design, and develop robust object-oriented software that is reusable, maintainable, and flexible.

The authors will help you understand how to utilize object-oriented principles, such as delegation and encapsulation, to build flexible Java applications. Additionally, you will get acquainted with various design patterns that can help you develop better Java software.

Through this Java book, you can also learn how to leverage UML, use cases, and diagrams to ensure that the software under development successfully meets the requirements of stakeholders.

After finishing this book, you will develop a sound understanding of the Open-closed Principle (OCP) and Single Responsibility Principle (SRP). You will get an idea of leveraging design patterns to solve your problems.

The book is penned in a way that it compresses the time required to learn and retain complex information.

5. Head First Design Patterns (2nd Edition)

• Author: Elisabeth Robson and Eric Freeman
• Paperback Print Length: 672 pages

Head First Design Patterns is the best Java book for beginners that introduces readers to the most common design patterns to build reusable, reliable, and fully functional software. It highlights the best practices and experiences of others. Also, the book helps you find answers to many questions, such as why composition is better than inheritance and many others.

The authors have described Java concepts in the form of captivating illustrations in the book, making it effortless for you to understand them. They have explained patterns that matter, why and when to use them, how to implement them in your own design, and the object-oriented design principles on which patterns are based.

Hundreds and thousands of developers have enhanced their object-oriented design skills with Head First Design Patterns.

6. Core Java Volume I - Fundamentals (11th Edition)

• Author: Cay S. Horstmann Number
• Publisher: Prentice-Hall
• Paperback Print Length: 928 pages

This Java book is ideal for you if you wish to develop sustainable and robust Java code. Also, it will help you gain a practical understanding of core Java and API concepts with multiple realistic examples. The examples are compatible with Java SE 9, 10, or 11.

Some major Core Java concepts covered in this book include lambda expressions, exception handling , and interfaces. With this Java book, you can learn how to use JShell’s read-eval-print loop (REPL) feature to develop code rapidly and quickly.

Moreover, you will get in-depth knowledge about fundamental Java and UI programming concepts, including objects, Swing design, concurrency, collections, functional programming , and generics.

This edition reflects updated examples of Java’s long-awaited modularization, explaining how to write manageable code in an easy way. It helps you learn about how to implement key improvements to the process API, contended locking, logging, and compilation.

7. Java: A Beginner’s Guide (9th Edition)

• Paperback Print Length: 752 pages

It is a definitive guide for individuals new to Java programming as well as seasoned programmers looking forward to enhancing their knowledge and skills. In the initial parts of Java: A Beginner’s Guide, the author focuses on describing how to write, compile, and run Java code. Later, he discusses the language's syntax, keywords, and constructs.

Also, the book talks about advanced concepts, like lambda expressions, multithreaded programming, Swing, modules, and generics. You will get to learn enumeration, modules, and interface methods. One particular advantage of learning Java from this book is that it introduces you to Java’s interactive programming tool, JShell.

This book is a perfect combination of theory and practical guide required to get started with developing Java applications. It features a comprehensive set of self-tests, exercises, and downloadable code examples.

8. Head First Java (3rd Edition)

• Author: Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra

Head First Java is one of the simplest yet most effective books to learn the language. It assists you in learning Java concepts quickly as it explains them using expressive visuals and puzzles. Also, it provides a detailed introduction to the fundamental and advanced concepts of Java and object-oriented programming .

The Java book introduces you to various essential Java topics, like network sockets, threads, lambdas, streams, generics, threading, dreaded desktop GUI, and distributed programming. If you have experience working with any other programming language, this book will quickly help you understand, write, and maintain sleeker and faster Java code.

The authors have designed this book in such a way that you can understand its content easily. Head First Java book helps you understand Java basics and educates you to think like a programmer .

9. Test-Driven: TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers

• Author: Lasse Koskela
• Publisher: Manning Publications
• Paperback Print Length: 470 pages

Test-Driven is an essential book for individuals wishing to learn how to write quirky automation testing programs. It is a perfect solution for Java developers who have experience developing automation, unit, and integration tests. Initially, this book introduces you to robust and commonly used test-driven development techniques.

Additionally, the author has explained concepts of test-driven development (TDD) and automation test-driven development (ATDD) with realistic examples that are compatible with the Java EE environment.

Also, this book exposes you to topics like data access code, multithreaded programs, hands-on tests to run Java code, avoiding typical TDD adoption drawbacks, and testing different Java EE components, like SpringControllers, Swing, and so on.

10. Java Performance: The Definite Guide

• Author: Scott Oaks
• Publisher: Shroff/O’Rielly
• Paperback Print Length: 448 pages

Java Performance: The Definitive Guide is one of the most comprehensive Java books covering the critical aspects of Java, such as Java Virtual Machine (JVM), garbage collection, and performance tuning. The author has described how Java code behaves in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and how to tune the code to enhance its performance.

Additionally, this Java book allows you to get aware of a wide variety of processes, tools, and features used to enhance the performance of Java 7 and 8 applications. It introduces you to various techniques for handling JVM native memory and heap memory.

The book also comes in handy if you want to know how to use JSD tools, tune JVM garbage collectors, maximize Java threading, tackle performance problems in Java EE and Java SE APIs, and enhance the performance of data-driven database applications. This book is available only in Paperback format.

This was our list of handpicked Java books ideal for beginners and advanced programmers. Whether you are a novice programmer or a seasoned developer, the above list offers the best resources to learn and master Java.

Java is one of the most popular programming languages. One of the most significant reasons for Java’s extensive adoption is its free and open-source nature. Also, it is widely used to develop a variety of applications. Hence, companies prefer using this language.

Developing a good understanding of the language’s basics and mastering the skill to create clean, efficient, and maintainable code opens a plethora of career opportunities.

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Ramya Shankar A cheerful, full of life and vibrant person, I hold a lot of dreams that I want to fulfill on my own. My passion for writing started with small diary entries and travel blogs, after which I have moved on to writing well-researched technical content. I find it fascinating to blend thoughts and research and shape them into something beautiful through my writing.

Which is the best book to learn Java for beginners?

The best books to learn Java for beginners are: 1. Effective Java 2. Java - The Complete Reference 3. Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design 4. Head First Design Patterns.

Should I read a book to learn Java?

Yes, you can read a book to learn Java as books provide in-depth knowledge about the subject with easy-to-understand examples and illustrations.

Is Java and JavaScript the same?

No, Java and JavaScript are not the same, and many people consider it because of their names. Java is a server-side language, while JavaScript is a client-side language.

Is Head First Java still good?

Yes, Head First Java is still a good book to learn Java for beginners.

Is Java hard to learn?

No, Java is not difficult to learn. But, to learn and master the language, you need to put a lot of effort and dedication.

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Best Java Books (Updated 2022)

You want to understand

• ... what exactly volatile means and when and why you have to use it ... and also for which purposes volatile is not sufficient?
• ... why (int) (char) (byte) -1 does not result in -1 but in 65535?
• ... what the difference is between a = a + b and a += b ? (Yes there is one – an important one in fact).
• ... or what <T extends Object & Comparable<? super T>> means?

Then continue reading. In this article you'll find some of the most important books for advanced Java programmers – on best practices, pitfalls, concurrency, generics and lambdas.

Here, you'll find recommendations for books on software development in general (i.e., not Java-specific).

If you're looking for something more relaxing, you'll find some  novels for nerds  here.

(Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Effective Java (Third Edition)

by Joshua Bloch

Link to the book at Amazon

In this book, Joshua Bloch has compiled the most important dos and don'ts of Java programming: Best practices that help you write efficient, readable, and maintainable – and therefore future-proof – software.

The book is primarily aimed at experienced Java programmers – good knowledge of the language is required.

Some of the practices you probably already use in your daily life; others may be new to you and help you take your skills to the next level.

The book contains 90 articles ("items") divided into 11 topics. A lot of material – but you can get to grips with it bit by bit. The items each represent a self-contained unit.

Each article contains specific, easy-to-understand advice, accompanied by concise, clear source code examples.

Every Java programmer should have read this book. I recommend reading the book once entirely, and then, if you have to solve specific tasks in your daily programming routine, consult the corresponding articles again.

When buying this book (especially if you purchase second-hand), make sure that you acquire the current, third edition! The second edition is based on Java 6 and is no longer up-to-date.

Suitable as an audiobook? No, because of the numerous code examples.

Java Puzzlers: Traps, Pitfalls, and Corner Cases

by Joshua Bloch and Neal Grafter

In this highly entertaining book, Joshua Bloch and Neil Gafter, both co-developers of the Java platform, uncover numerous pitfalls and corner cases of the Java platform.

The book contains 95 puzzles in the form of a few lines long, seemingly trivial Java program. The reader's task is to predict what the program will do. The obvious answer is rarely the correct one – and even if you recognize the trap the authors have set for you, you often fall into a second, even more obscure one.

For each puzzle, the authors describe in detail the reasons for the unexpected behavior (with references to the Java Language Specification) and provide practical rules for avoiding the demonstrated behavior in the first place.

Some of the puzzles are heavily contrived to let exceptions from the depths of the Java Language Specification kick in, which I have never had to deal with in 25 years with Java. That's because most of these oddities don't occur if you write clean, readable code without "clever" tricks.

Many of the cases, however, you encounter regularly, such as the % operator, peculiarities of signed integer types, inaccuracies in floating point numbers, silent overflows, hidden (rather than overridden or overloaded) methods, or the initialization of static class variables, to name a few.

Every puzzle is exciting and instructive, and the explanations are humorous and entertaining. It's amusing that the names of some puzzles hint at the solution. But that doesn't diminish the fun, as you usually notice it only afterward at the big "aha" moment.

The book's only shortcoming is that it is at the level of Java 5. Some of the particularities no longer occur in modern Java versions – and there are certainly some new ones.

Java Concurrency in Practice

by Brian Goetz, Tim Peilers, Joshua Bloch, Joseph Bowbeer, David Holmes, Doug Lea

Writing scalable applications that use the capabilities of today's multi-core CPUs while running reliably and with high performance is a challenge. Race conditions, deadlocks, and other liveness errors quickly creep in.

Brian Goetz and a team of experts from Java Specification Request 166 "Concurrency Utilities" describe in "Java Concurrency in Practice" the fundamental concepts of thread safety and the correct implementation of thread-safe applications in Java.

The book is divided into four parts:

• The first part is about basics like atomicity and visibility, intrinsic locks ("synchronized"), safe publication of objects, thread-safe composition, and concurrency building blocks concurrent collections and synchronizers like semaphores, latches, and barriers.
• The second part is about parallelizing applications using tasks and the executor framework. It explains the configuration of thread pools and the safe termination of tasks, threads, thread pools, and applications.
• The third part is about liveness (deadlocks, livelocks, thread starvation), measuring performance and improving it by reducing lock contention, and writing tests for concurrent algorithms.
• The fourth part covers advanced topics such as explicit locks, condition queues (wait/notify), atomic variables, non-blocking algorithms, and the Java Memory Model. Building on this, the functionality of many of the topics presented in part one, such as object publishing, concurrent collections, and synchronizer classes, is explained.

All explanations are accompanied by excellent real-world code examples. Most show frequently made but incorrect implementations first, followed by the correct ones.

The authors successfully explain an extremely complex topic in a relatively simple way. Of particular note is the excellent explanation of the Java Memory Model and the "happens-before" relationship.

Nevertheless, the book is not an easy read, and it takes time to understand all the details. I recommend reading the book at least twice.

Even though the book is on the level of Java 6, it is still up-to-date. The basics of thread safety have not changed since, and all features added in later Java versions (like the fork/join framework, CompletableFuture, or parallel streams) are based on them.

Suitable as an audiobook? No, due to numerous extensive code examples.

P.S.: If you want to go deeper into the advanced topics and read about specific types of memory fences and advanced memory access methods like release/acquire and opaque, I recommend Doug Lea's "Concurrent Programming in Java" as a follow-up reading.

Java Generics and Collections

by Maurice Naftalin and Philip Wadler

While these days, most Java developers can skip the book’s introduction to generics, the book quickly addresses advanced topics such as Subtyping, Wildcards, Wildcard captures, and Bounds – topics that every Java programmer has probably had to deal with before, but has usually walked through compiler errors rather than knowing what they did.

In the second part of the book, the author presents the essential Collection interfaces and classes of the Java Collection Framework – Sets, Queues, Lists, and Maps, as well as their implementations – and compares them regarding concurrent programming and performance.

Any advanced Java programmer should be familiar with these topics.

Suitable as an audiobook? No, due to numerous code examples.

Concurrent Programming in Java: Design Principles and Pattern, 2nd Edition

by Doug Lea

Concurrency has always been a first-class citizen in Java. Threads, monitors (keyword "synchronized"), and guarded blocks ("wait"/"notify") have been part of the language since Java 1.0.

"Concurrent Programming in Java" is from 1999 and thus on the level of Java 1.2. Nevertheless, the described challenges of concurrent programming (security, liveness, performance) are still relevant today. So are the presented principles and design patterns, like synchronization and confinement, monitors, guarded waits and notifications, latches, worker threads, futures, fork/join, and many more.

Abstracting from this, the author introduces more complex, reusable utility classes for initiating and coordinating concurrent activities. Most of these classes are today – in an evolved form – part of the JDK. In the JavaDoc of these classes (e.g., Semaphore, ReentrantLock, Executor, or CountDownLatch – and in newer ones like CompletableFuture or StampedLock), you will find the signature of Doug Lea, the author of this book.

The book is not a light read. The writing style is academic and highly challenging. I had to read many paragraphs more than once and keep cross-referencing to other parts of the book to understand. With the examples, it is sometimes advisable to read the theory first, then the source code, and then the theory again. Every few pages, you have to take a break.

It took me several weeks to work through the entire work. But it is definitely worth the effort!

Once you have internalized the basics of this book, you will be able to write performant, thread-safe code and quickly recognize non-thread-safe code as well as the causes of race conditions. That will make you one of the most sought-after Java programmers.

Suitable as an audiobook? No, due to numerous diagrams and code examples.

Mastering Lambdas: Java Programming in a Multicore World

by Maurice Naftalin

Mastering Lambdas is an excellent book about Lambdas and Streams, introduced in Java 8. Despite their presence in the title, Lambdas occupy only about the first quarter of the book. The major part describes Streams: how to use them, how to create them, and how to terminate them using Collectors and Reducers.

I recommend this book to both beginners and advanced users. Beginners can use the book as a step-by-step introduction to the functionality of Lambda and Streams. Advanced readers learn how to develop Spliterators to generate streams as well as custom Collectors and Reducers.

Bad Tests, Good Tests

by Tomek Kaczanowski

Tests and test-driven development (TDD) have arrived in most IT teams. Tests are supposed to assure the correct behavior of new and existing features, to survive refactorings unscathed, as documentation to make it easier for new developers to get started with the code, and – on top of that – lead to clean(er) code.

Unfortunately, many tests are not worth the time spent developing them. They are poorly readable and maintainable. And they often need adjustments during refactorings because they don't verify the result of an operation but how the operation was executed.

Bad Tests, Good Tests uses numerous examples (about half of the book contains code) to explain what constitutes bad tests – examples as the author has found them in real projects. The author then contrasts each example with specific suggestions for improvement.

The range of shortcomings goes from poor readability (e.g., long setup or assertion blocks) and obvious errors (e.g., forgotten assertions) to incomplete tests (that don't fail despite functionality changes) and subtle errors (e.g., exceptions thrown in places other than expected) to completely useless tests (that, e.g., verify the test library instead of your code).

The book is exceptionally hands-on and suitable for both beginners and advanced developers.

Beginners don't have to repeat the mistakes that others have made before them. Advanced programmers will surely recognize one or the other anti-pattern from their daily work and can fill their toolbox with new techniques.

The author writes understandably and humorously. And he explicitly points out that one may also break his rules if it serves the cause in the individual case.

A clear recommendation for every Java developer.

Suitable as an audiobook? No, due to countless code examples.

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To learn the art of programming in Java, it is important to first learn the rules and then learn when to break them! 

And this is important because Java is one of the most popular programming languages in the world as it can be used to design customized applications for a variety of purposes. According to the TIOBE Index for June 2022, Java is still among the top programming languages. Keeping this in mind, if you want to learn Java , there are many books available in the market (for programmers at all stages of learning). In this article, we have compiled the best books for Java, both for ranked amateurs and programming whiz kids!!! Each of these books is extremely popular so it is up to you to choose the ones you like according to your learning sensibilities. So without further ado, let’s check out the hand-picked list of best books to learn Java.

First, let’s start simple and focus on the best Java books for beginners , and then we will move on to the more complicated best books of Java for Experts! One of the most popular and essential languages, Java helps programmers to develop amazing web, mobile, enterprise, and other applications. So, here at Geeksforgeeks, we have introduced a Master Java Programming – Complete Beginner to Advanced course, where beginners can learn the basics of Java without any hassle, and advanced students can leverage their existing skills to the next level. Now, back to the point, here’s the list of best books to learn Java for beginners and experts:

Best Java Books for Beginners

1. beginning programming with java for dummies (5th edition).

Do you wish to speak Java like a professional? Well, in case you wish to speak the Java lingo like a pro while being a dummy, in the beginning, this book is the best as it provides you with a no-nonsense guide that shows you how to create a program in Java, how to put various pieces together, how to handle the standard programming challenges in Java and so on. Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies will help you to ‘speak’ Java as it starts with basic concepts like variables, methods, loops and arrays, objects, classes, etc. Also, this book is updated with Java 9 so you can learn the language with various samples. 

2. Head First Java: A Brain-Friendly Guide (2nd Edition)

In case you are bored of slogging through Java how-to manuals, then Head-First Java is the way to go! This book is a brain-friendly guide (As its name suggests!) and it provides a more visual format to engage your brain rather than a text-heavy approach that can become boring pretty fast. Head-First Java starts the Java journey from basic programming fundamentals and moves on to advanced topics and is often considered one of the best books for Java programming for beginners which include threads, network sockets, distributed programming with RMI, etc. So Head-First Java is basically a multi-sensory learning experience that will help you in becoming a bonafide Java programmer in no time!

3. Java: Programming Basics for Absolute Beginners (1st Edition)

If learning Java seems like a daunting task to you, fear not!!! Java: Programming Basics for Absolute Beginners is considered among the best books for Java Programming for beginners that provides a thorough introduction to Java that will have you writing programs and solving problems in no time! As you work through this book, you will learn the key topics of Java along with 57 practical examples. Java: Programming Basics for Absolute Beginners is written specifically for beginners with a step-by-step through the first program along with a guide through the inner workings of the Java Development Kit and Java Runtime Environment. There are also multiple examples to illustrate each topic like Data Types, Variables, Constants, Operators, Type Conversion, Loops, Decision Making, etc. 

4. Core Java Volume I – Fundamentals (11th Edition)

If you want to understand the core of Java fundamentals, then Core Java Volume I is the book for you! It will help you get an in-depth education about Java and API with the help of lots of examples, most of which reflect modularization that demonstrates code that is easier to manage and evolve. Core Java Volume I – Fundamentals has chapters with topics ranging from the basics like variables, data structures, objects, and classes to the advances like objects, generics, collections, lambda expressions, Swing design, concurrency, and functional programming. 

Best Java Books for Intermediates/Experts

1. effective java (3rd edition).

If you have understood Java fundamentals and now want to get some real work done, then Effective Java is one of the finest & the best Java books for experts! It will help you get an in-depth education about the seventy-eight programmer’s rules of thumb, which are working solutions for the various commonly available programming challenges. The topics included in Effective Java include the new design patterns that demonstrate the best of various features ranging from generics to enums, annotations to autoboxing. All of these concepts are explained clearly and concisely using many examples to make sure you get them right.

  2. Java: The Complete Reference (11th Edition)

If you are at the intermediate or expert level in Java and want a “back to the basics” approach, then this book is the way to go as it’s a well-structured and complete source on Java programming with examples from the real world for all topics. Java: The Complete Reference covers the whole of Java, including fundamental topics like syntax, keywords, and basic programming principles. And also the complex topics like the Java API library, the concurrency utilities, Swing, JavaBeans, servlets, etc. An introduction to JShell is also provided, which is Java’s interactive programming tool. 

3. Thinking in Java (4th Edition)

If you want to think in Java my friends, Thinking in Java is the book for you!!! It is a hands-on guide that will thoroughly instruct you in writing the most efficient Java code by using the best features of Java. This book contains 500+ working Java programs in 700+ compiling files, that are rewritten for the newest edition of Java in this book. Thinking in Java begins with an object-oriented introduction for both beginners and experts and then follows it with topics like Design patterns, Introduction to XML, Concurrency, etc. All in all, this is a book that will remain a relevant source of knowledge for you even after years of studying and coding in Java. 

Learning Java as a beginner can be a plus point to start your software engineering journey & to cater to that we tried to segregate the list of Best Books To Learn Java For Beginners and Experts separately. Hope you find it useful & start learning Java right away.

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