Some of these top Java programming books are the best Java books ever produced. When a programmer starts studying Java, he wonders, “Which book should I consult to learn Java?” or “What is the best book to learn Java for beginners?” Java books are useful for programmers, especially novices. Despite so many free Java resources including tutorials, online courses, tips, blogs, and code examples, Java books have a place for two reasons:
They’re authored by expert programmers and provide greater detail and explanation.
When I have time, I read these Java books to update my expertise.
Though I’ve read several of them, like Effective Java 3-4 times, I always learn something fresh. They’re the top Java books accessible for beginners, experienced, and advanced programmers. This book will teach you a lot whether you’re new to Java or have been programming for 5 years.
Head First Java is the finest book for Java beginners, whereas Effective Java is better for advanced programmers.
10 Must-Read Java Books
Here’s my collection of Java books for programmers learning Java. It includes books for beginners and 2-5-year-old programmers.
Core Java Fundamentals, Java Collection framework, Multithreading and Concurrency, JVM internals and Performance optimization, Design Patterns, etc. are covered.
Head First Java
Head First Java is the greatest Java book for beginners. Head-first explanations are a phenomenon, and I love reading their books.
Headfirst Java covers class, object, Thread, Collection, Generics, Enum, variable arguments, auto-boxing, etc.
Advanced sections on Swing, networking, and Java IO make them a full package for Java newcomers. If you’re new to Java, start here.
The best Java programming books for beginners and advanced developers. If you prefer online classes to books, Udemy’s The Complete Java MasterClass might speed up your learning.
Head First Design Patterns
Head First Design Pattern is another great Java book from Head First lab; it’s perhaps their best.
When I started reading this book in 2006, I didn’t know anything about Java design patterns, how they solve problems, how to apply them, or what benefits they bring, but I learned a lot afterward.
The first chapter on Inheritance and Composition promotes best practices by introducing a problem and subsequently a solution. Bullet points, exercises, and memory maps help you understand design patterns fast. This is the best Java book to master key design patterns and OOP principles. Kathy Sierra and her crew wrote Head First.
If you’re searching for a course on GOF or object-oriented design patterns, I recommend the Design Pattern Library.
This book’s new edition is updated for Java SE 8, so you can learn how to construct classic GOF design patterns utilizing Java 8 features like lambda expressions and streams.
Java-effective
Effective Java is one of my favorite Java books. I respect Joshua Bloch’s contribution to the Java collection architecture and Java concurrency package.
Effective Java is excellent for a seasoned or experienced Java programmer who wants to share their skill by following programming best practices and Java best practices.
Effective Java is a high-quality, well-written book. This Java book is enjoyable. Effective Java has an item-based structure, so you can read it while traveling or for a short time. Effective Java covers static factories, serialization, equals, hashcode, generics, enum and varargs, and reflection. This Java programming book covers practically every aspect in a unique approach.
Effective Java 3rd edition is coming soon, hopefully before December 31, 2017, after a 10-year hiatus.
This volume covers JDK 7, 8, and 9, published in September. It will also feature a chapter on lambdas, and Joshua Bloch may modify the concurrency chapter if time permits.
JCP Practice
Joshua Bloch, Doug Lea, and the team wrote another classic. Best Java book on concurrency and multithreading, a must-read for core Java developers.
Java’s concurrency strengths are:
1) This extensive book covers multi-threading and concurrency.
2) Instead of focusing on basic Java classes, this book focuses on concurrency difficulties including deadlock, starvation, thread-safety, and race conditions and how to handle them using Java concurrency classes.
This book helps you master Java concurrency classes including CountDownLatch, CyclicBarrier, BlockingQueue, and Semaphore. This is why I keep reading this Java book.
3) Java concurrency is no-nonsense. Clear, simple, informative examples in this book
4) Explanation: the book is good at explaining what is wrong, why it’s wrong, and how to fix it.
One of the greatest Java books for concurrency and multithreading. Content is advanced for beginners, but a must-read for seasoned Java programmers.
Java Generics
Many readers asked me to add Java Generics and Collection by Naftalin and Philip Wadler from O’Reilly to my list, so I’m doing it today.
This book’s Generics and Collections material are essential Java subjects. These books help experienced programmers learn Java Collections and Generics. This book examines the performance of Collection interfaces like Set, List, Map, and Queue. I liked their comparison table at the end of each chapter, which shows whether to use ArrayList, HashMap, or LinkedHashMap.
Binu John’s Java Performance
I recommend every senior Java developer read this book to learn about JVM internals, garbage collection, tuning, and profiling. Another favorite of mine.
We’re progressing from beginners to intermediate and advanced players. This book covers Java performance monitoring, profiling, and tools.
This isn’t a typical programming book; it covers JVM, Garbage Collection, Java heap monitoring, and profiling. It’s a must-read to learn JVM in simple language. This book is advanced and assumes Java knowledge.
This book is appropriate for beginners and intermediate programmers, but you should have some Java knowledge beforehand. Best Java performance monitoring book.
If you’re serious about Java performance, read this book.
Java puzzles
Joshua Bloch and Neal Gafter wrote Java Puzzlers. This book covers Java corners and dangers.
Java is safer and more secure than C++, and JVM frees programmers from error-prone memory allocation and deallocation, but Java includes corner-cases that can surprise even experienced programmers.
This book details Java pitfalls. You can use several of these puzzles in fundamental Java interviews to test candidates’ knowledge.
It’s not as good as “Effective Java” or “Java Concurrency in Practice,” but it can help you answer hard Java interview questions.
Try to solve the puzzles in this Java book on your own before reading the explanations.
Head First OOAD
Head First’s latest book on Java programming and design. Head First Design patterns can be read with Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design.
This book focuses on Object-oriented design principles like composition over inheritance, DRY, etc.
This book helps programmers learn decent Java code and best practices.
This book will improve your comprehension of code and OOP design ideas for several object-oriented languages.
Java-thinking
Bruce Eckel employs his unique manner to explain Java principles in his book Thinking in Java.
This is one of the best Java books, with clear, sensible examples. This is a complete Java book and a reference. Thinking in Java has a great chapter on memory-mapped IO.
I’d say this is a must-read Java book for novices. Thinking in Java is a good choice if you don’t like Head First’s example-based approach.
If you need more options, try these core Java books for beginners.
Java By Comparison: 70 Examples
This is a wonderful book for Java programmers who wish to become experts. This book is about improving real-world tasks, not syntax and semantics. This book will make you a sought-after Java developer.
Simon Harrer, Jörg Lenhard, and Linus Dietz are well-known Java and clean code authors. The book contains clean code recommendations, as expected.
One of the finest methods to enhance your coding is to compare it to an expert’s, but not everyone has that opportunity. This book allows you to compare your code to a Java expert’s and learn from your mistakes and fresh discoveries.
This book shows how to enhance your coding style with tiny, clear examples. You’ll learn tips, tricks, and common Java issues.
Every Java developer should read this practical, hands-on book. If you like Effective Java, you’ll like this book.
This is my list of finest Java programming books. Some books, like Effective Java and Head First, I’ve read multiple times. Many programmers ask me what Java books they’re reading. I hope these Java books are helpful.
