1 | Java in a Nutshell, by David Flanagan, is the language reference book in the familiar O'Reilly series. The 2nd edition of this book is now out - it omits many examples from the first edition to make room for large section on JDK 1.1 - currently best book reference. Also Java Examples in a Nutshell. |
2 | Java, How to Program, by Deitel and Deitel, Prentice-Hall, starts with beginning programming concepts and progresses rapidly through Java language. It has the most programming exercises and also has companion teaching multimedia books. |