What books should be on the bookshelf of EVERY Java programmer, no matter what specific technologies they are working on?

The two that come to my mind are

Thinking in Java
Java Concurrency in Practice

What else am I missing?

Views: 380

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Will add one more to my list:

Effective Java
"Thinking in Java" would have been on my list. I'll have to take a look at "Effective Java".

Java Books

Beginner:

  • Head First Java, 2nd Edition
  • Thinking in Java (4th Edition)
  • Think Java
  • Introduction to Java by Sedgewick
  • Java in a Nutshell
  • Core Java Volume I--Fundamentals (9th Edition) (Core Series): Cay S. Horstmann
  • Java How To Program (late objects) by Paul Deitel, Harvey Deitel

Intermediate:

  • Effective Java (2nd Edition): Joshua Bloch
  • Java Performance: Charlie Hunt, Binu John
  • Head First Servlets and JSP
  • SCJP by Kathy and Sierra
  • Java - The Complete Reference by Herbert Schildt.
  • Java Concurrency in Practice
  • Java Performance
  • The Java Programming Language, 4th Edition

Advanced:

  • Java Puzzlers : Traps, Pitfalls, And Corner Cases

Reply to Discussion

RSS

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

Databricks Introduces Lakebase, a PostgreSQL Database for AI Workloads

Databricks has recently announced the general availability of Lakebase, a serverless, PostgreSQL-based OLTP database that scales compute and storage independently. Lakebase is designed to integrate with the Databricks platform, providing a hybrid solution that combines both transactional and analytical capabilities.

By Renato Losio

TypeScript 6 Released: Developers Invited to Upgrade to Prepare for the Go Rewrite

The TypeScript team recently released TypeScript 6 in beta. The release serves as a key transition point rather than a full feature release. It focuses on technical debt elimination and standardization, preparing the ecosystem for TypeScript 7, a rewrite of the TypeScript code in Go that seeks to address core performance issues that ballooned over time.

By Bruno Couriol

OpenAI Introduces Harness Engineering: Codex Agents Power Large‑Scale Software Development

OpenAI introduces Harness Engineering, an AI-driven methodology where Codex agents generate, test, and deploy a million-line production system. The platform integrates observability, architectural constraints, and structured documentation to automate key software development workflows.

By Leela Kumili

AWS Enables Lambda Function Triggers from RDS for SQL Server Database Events

In a blog post, AWS recently described an event-driven pattern for Amazon RDS for SQL Server, allowing developers to trigger Lambda functions in response to database events via CloudWatch Logs and SQS.

By Steef-Jan Wiggers

.NET 11 Preview 1 Arrives With Runtime Async, Zstandard Support, and C# 15 Features

NET 11 Preview 1 is released, featuring Runtime Async as the headline change, moving async method handling from the compiler into the runtime itself. The preview also brings CoreCLR WebAssembly work, native Zstandard compression, C# 15 collection expression arguments, and MAUI improvements. Community reaction has been mixed, with praise for async changes but debate over language complexity.

By Almir Vuk

© 2026   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service