A few days ago I received my copy of Head First Java by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates. I'm only part way through the book, but what's amazed me is that even in my sleep-deprived state that first evening, I found myself thinking, "OK, just one more page, then I'll go to bed." That went on for the first 25 pages, even though I had been reading a couple of chapters each night from the new Harry Potter book for my brain candy. When the day has come that a book about a programming language qualifies as "brain candy", something truly different has happened.

When I posted about the resources I'd used to prepare for my Java certification, one of those resources was the JavaRanch web site. Turns out that Kathy Sierra started that site wayyyyy back in 1998 (that, of course, sounds odd to me, since 1970 still sounds like the future in my 40-something head). Well now it's started making sense that Head First Java is so readable.

Kathy and Bert - besides obviously knowing a fair amount about programming - have dedicated a chunk of time to studying how that cauliflower inside our skulls prefers to function. So they've applied that knowledge of what the brain enjoys and what draws and holds our attention, and have come up with a book that seems to do a really fine job of explaining Java programming, but in a manner that is actually fun.

OK, now I do want to state up front that I received this book free, so if knowing that colors your impression of my first impression of the book, so be it. But I will also state that my son starts college next month, planning a double major in Computer Information Systems and Spanish. When the time comes for him to learn Java, I'm buying him a copy of this book; I'm keeping my copy.