This book is the best.The authors set out to write a book in such a way that the reader will pick up the material without having to fight.They apparently thought hard about the specific features of technical writing that do the trick....and it worked!They have colorful drawings, metaphor-like stories, light and colorful pictures, handwritten scripts, and other stuff that make it so easy to understand.I, for one, have never seen anything like it.How many times does one recognize the severe shortcomings of convention, adopt the task of specifically correcting them, and succeed.One can learn the basics of Java and then some, in just a few days.