Java books for fresh grads

jinsatkilife

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i'm a book guy, is there a reading list of books to learn java with practical examples and problems instead of videos, particularly for the finance industry?
 

davidktw

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Don't think beginners should read these books. They are too advanced....
3 of the books are for beginners, a couple are for intermediate and a few more are advance topics.

They are not too advance once you take a book at a time. Reading books is not about doing it as fast as possible. It also requires the reader to do some self exploration.
 

Trader11

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3 of the books are for beginners, a couple are for intermediate and a few more are advance topics.

They are not too advance once you take a book at a time. Reading books is not about doing it as fast as possible. It also requires the reader to do some self exploration.

Also the list doesn't mention about Spring Framework at all....imo it is the most common stack for enterprise Java development.
 

davidktw

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Also the list doesn't mention about Spring Framework at all....imo it is the most common stack for enterprise Java development.
Spring Framework is not the only framework. Java is not Spring. Wanna learn Java, start from Java. This is an introduction to Java, not introduction to Spring. Spring is very large.

Learning JSP and Servlet technologies is a start. Spring is just riding on top of these technologies. I don’t agree that JSP and J2EE are obsolete, they are the basis of servlet technologies, and knowing them give you good background knowledge of what comes after. Spring have a lot of “magic”. I have know many Java developers that doesn’t fully grasp what comes underneath that fanciful IoC. What proxies really are, and why Spring does things certain way because of the way the magic are implemented.

Want to learn Java, start climbing the stairs, not skipping it. :)

Need to know Spring now? Do it concurrently. First understand what Java is. I can’t stress further, this is what I can recommend and advise, you need to choose what you want to be :)
 

jinsatkilife

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3 of the books are for beginners, a couple are for intermediate and a few more are advance topics.

They are not too advance once you take a book at a time. Reading books is not about doing it as fast as possible. It also requires the reader to do some self exploration.
hi david, thanks for the link and intro. May I ask which 3 books are beginner?

I did search before posting this thread but the problem is the reviews are all too general. Hence, decided to ask forum for word of mouth recommendations

in your view, what are the must read bibles for for java beginners? that will make your life much easier because you won't have to spend crazy amount of time to learn something

since i dont have a mentor/parent to spoon feed me, books and videos are the other way. Thing is I find videos too time consuming and not as clear. 2nd thing about vids is that it's hard for me to recall efficiently stuff whereas for books, i can read and recall things easily

I guess my question is how do I get myself skilled to get a job in the shortest timeframe and where relevant and practical skills that can be translated into project deliverables in the working world?

yes, to trader11 point, many questions were related to SPRING as well.

I went for several interviews and all wanted java. School didn't cover it indepth. I don't want to be a burden to my colleagues
 

Trader11

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hi david, thanks for the link and intro. May I ask which 3 books are beginner?

I did search before posting this thread but the problem is the reviews are all too general. Hence, decided to ask forum for word of mouth recommendations

in your view, what are the must read bibles for for java beginners? that will make your life much easier because you won't have to spend crazy amount of time to learn something

since i dont have a mentor/parent to spoon feed me, books and videos are the other way. Thing is I find videos too time consuming and not as clear. 2nd thing about vids is that it's hard for me to recall efficiently stuff whereas for books, i can read and recall things easily

I guess my question is how do I get myself skilled to get a job in the shortest timeframe and where relevant and practical skills that can be translated into project deliverables in the working world?

yes, to trader11 point, many questions were related to SPRING as well.

I went for several interviews and all wanted java. School didn't cover it indepth. I don't want to be a burden to my colleagues
For short term, better learn Spring Boot well enough.

For long term, follow davidktw advices. Those head first books are for newbies....
 

davidktw

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hi david, thanks for the link and intro. May I ask which 3 books are beginner?

I did search before posting this thread but the problem is the reviews are all too general. Hence, decided to ask forum for word of mouth recommendations

in your view, what are the must read bibles for for java beginners? that will make your life much easier because you won't have to spend crazy amount of time to learn something

since i dont have a mentor/parent to spoon feed me, books and videos are the other way. Thing is I find videos too time consuming and not as clear. 2nd thing about vids is that it's hard for me to recall efficiently stuff whereas for books, i can read and recall things easily

I guess my question is how do I get myself skilled to get a job in the shortest timeframe and where relevant and practical skills that can be translated into project deliverables in the working world?

yes, to trader11 point, many questions were related to SPRING as well.

I went for several interviews and all wanted java. School didn't cover it indepth. I don't want to be a burden to my colleagues
Well trader11 has answered some of the above.

Generally if you look at the job requirements, those are the kind of things required of you. That being said, those are just wish list, which you don't have to fully fulfil to land yourself in a job, but as you have rightfully mentioned, you don't want to be a burden to your colleague. In that case, get your fundamentals strong by reading more, not just necessity. Nowadays I find many developers have very narrow vision onto what they think they should know and this limit their growth and creative capacity.

If you want to learn something, go at no expense, not shortest time or not. Your time spent will only get shorter if you have a good foundation and you know more breadth knowledge. It is to each individual, not something I can simply show you and you will get efficient at it.

Some of the Java books I have came across in the past are already outdated because they don't discuss the latest techniques used in Java today. It would seems Java 8 has very significant enhancements and changes in the API, so read books that introduce about Java 8 onwards.

:)
 

jackoats.sg

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Hey I'm learning Java on my own too, but I'm towards the tail-end of my IT Infra career.

I would recommend "Java for Absolute Beginners" by Cosmina, publisher Apress.

Pro:
1) There is a complete project for you to work on, with detailed instructions what to do with IDE setup, and pretty clear explanation about Java 8 & 9
2) She also wrote on Spring Framework and Spring certifications. So you will get used to her style when you reach there, especially the use of Gradle for managing dependencies

Cons:
1) Don't be fooled by the title Absolute Beginner. You might need to complement it with other books.
 

jinsatkilife

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Hey I'm learning Java on my own too, but I'm towards the tail-end of my IT Infra career.

I would recommend "Java for Absolute Beginners" by Cosmina, publisher Apress.

Pro:
1) There is a complete project for you to work on, with detailed instructions what to do with IDE setup, and pretty clear explanation about Java 8 & 9
2) She also wrote on Spring Framework and Spring certifications. So you will get used to her style when you reach there, especially the use of Gradle for managing dependencies

Cons:
1) Don't be fooled by the title Absolute Beginner. You might need to complement it with other books.
Thanks for sharing! I learn the best through hands on project and coding exercises
 
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