Customer Reviews
Great book, really good way of teaching Java - By: S. Toor, 12 Aug 2008 
This book is a really good 'hands on' way of teaching the Java programming language. Whilst other texts may start introducing concepts they often do soin a very bland fashion with chunks of paragraphs often tailored to the academic study of Java. This book however introduces & teaches the reader how to programin java, explaining the important concepts clearly & concisely & offers numerous practical exercises.
Not for the self taught - By: Tony P, 17 Nov 2007 
this is an excelent book, but definately NOT FOR THOSE TEACHING THEMSELVES.
The problem is that it is usedin college courses, so there are no answers to the exercises. This means that if you are at home trying to learn Object Oriented Programming, & you have no tutor to ask, you don't know if you've got it right. And if you come across an exercise (as I have with 4.26) where you can see an answer but don't know how to code it, you're stuffed.
So, yes buy this book if you're part of an organised (college) course, but steer clear if you're on your own trying to teach yourself.
Edit - post finishibg the book:
There is a mailing list (objects-first-discussion@bluej.org) but don't ask directly for answers to the exercises, but phrase your questions to show what bits you understand but which bits you need hints with.
The answer to the exercise I mention has "ugly" syntax - you can have () at other places apart from right at the end of a dotted list.
But one last thing, this book does give you a real feel for what objects are & what you can do with/to them, as such it is invaluable to OOP.
Best book for OOP - By: Mr. N. Choudhury, 10 Jul 2007 
This is probably THE best book there is for Object Orientated Programming (OOP).
The book explainsin full detail with examples, how to execute objects, methods & classes.
This book turned me from a failed OOP student to THE best OOP programmer out of all the students out of the whole year. Considering university lectures do not fully teach you everything there is you need to know about OOP, this book will help fillin the gaps.
Excellent - By: M. Bristo, 01 Nov 2006 If you are interestedin OOP or a taster for Java this is the book. It has a university like learning approach which makes the whole learning experience both realitively easy & also interesting. Worth the money & the best book I have seen to date.
Another satisfied customer - an Excellent Book - By: John Ryan, 07 Sep 2006 The idea behind this book is that although it uses Java as a way to teach object oriented programming, it's not focussed on the "Java" aspect, but the "OOOP". This means it provides a clear understanding of the underlying OOP principles, then uses Java programming to give examples - & there's many, many examples.
I particularly liked the fact the book provides a project - giving the reader something to do, then at the end gives a few other tasks. That way if you're really dedicated (or merely curious) you can take it a bit further.
As with the other reviewers I found it easy to follow (without being patronising or simplistic), & whereas I found many other books great on theory or syntax, this was pure practical stuff.
The fact that it also comes with a very simple Development Tool hides much of the initial nonsense you'd have to get to grips with Java - & again visually demonstrates what other books merely tell you about.
If you're leaning Java for the first time - read this first.
