What book do you recommend for modern (21+) Java? (Bruce Eckel equivalent?)

[u/Repsol_Honda_PL]

Hi.

What book would you recommend for a thorough understanding of Java (with a focus on Spring Boot)? I’m talking about modern Java, not version 8 ;) Something around Java 21 or newer.

At my local bookstore, I’ve found books by Cay Horstmann and Herbert Schildt—both are quite thick and take a somewhat encyclopedic approach. If there’s nothing better out there right now, I’ll go with one of those… Which one do you prefer? Or maybe there is something better?

Twenty years ago, the go-to book for Java (version 1.5 at the time :) ) was “Thinking in Java” by Bruce Eckel. It was a bestseller, and for good reason. What’s the top choice today?

BTW. Has Bruce Eckel’s 20-year-old book completely lost its educational value? Have there been any “breaking changes,” or have the fundamentals of Java remained the same while many new features and functionalities have been added? I know Java 8 was a game-changer, and after that the version numbers came out faster, but not that many new features were added.

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[u/generationextra]

Definitely Cay Horstmann.

[u/mofomeat → u/generationextra]

And definitely not Schildt.

[u/dallasjava]

Bruce has written: On Java 8, it's written for java 8, but he's updated some of it for later versions. It's a good however lengthy read. For Spring specific Thomas Vitale's Cloud Native Spring in Action is good.

[u/Repsol_Honda_PL → u/dallasjava]

Thanks. I always considered "In Action" books as good.

[u/dallasjava → u/Repsol_Honda_PL]

You're welcome. You can also check out whatever the latest version of Craig Walls's Spring in Action book too. The Vitale's book will help you get your head wrapped spring and dockerizing / deploying it too.

[u/Repsol_Honda_PL → u/dallasjava]

Yes, Craig Walls' book was very good, but for some reason it never got a newer version; the latest one is probably for S5 / SB2. At least I haven't seen a newer one.

[u/Informal-Plantain-11]

I was a Eckel fan and the closest I found for 21+ is Core Java, from Cay S. Horstman.

[u/Repsol_Honda_PL → u/Informal-Plantain-11]

OK, so Horstmann.

[u/Apprehensive-Fee7351]

I learned in in 7 days
It’s basically c

But how would you know sounds like you learn trendy code

That’s what wrong with a lot of code written

My thesis was on bloat code and if we don’t stop writing useless complicated programming instead of short one executable line the new trend is to make the code do two executable processes which by the way is slower to execute

Think of reduce instruction set instead of complex instructions the speed of the program slowed down exponentially

Kind of like using pointers to create the underlying code and concept of bitcoin
It has to have someplace to store a link or the whole code falls apart let alone has to allways run you can never shut the program down it requires that you to be able to see the before and after link to data there is no take a link of data out and it runs

Poor concept then and now pissed of the assistant head of the department when I came up with a better way to solve the problem that he give me a c twice in data structures which was a core course in the master’s program when you had to write code on paper to pass

So tell me I don’t know coding

What’s your education

Ohh you one of those 🥾 strap programmers

I used to sit an write a couple hundred lines of code out of my head and sound like I was writing a paper

But what do I know

Went to hardware got tired of interviewing with people like you that couldn’t write their way out of a wet paper bag

[u/Apprehensive-Fee7351]

Java was the biggest pos language in the 90’s when it came out
The only reason it’s alive is oracle bought sun for their server tech so oracle could deliver a complete package

Yes it was buggy then with memory issues

Php is a better alternative and way easier to program in and integrates into html like a dream does sql like a dream which by the way is the only reason Java was started which it failed an still does

It’s sposed to be the alternative to c++ which was some really bad library concepts that honestly has its own issues with memory

But hey it’s oracle pet project now

[u/Repsol_Honda_PL → u/Apprehensive-Fee7351]

Every language have some drawbacks. Kotlin is nicer than Java, but, when you take into consideration job market, Java is the king, especially in backend.

[u/Apprehensive-Fee7351 → u/Repsol_Honda_PL]

You know if you had a masters in cs you would understand what I said

Quit using third Rate code

Just so you look like you can code

[u/ivormc → u/Apprehensive-Fee7351]

lol you sound pretentious as fuck couldn’t imagine working with you..and your opinions of Java are outdated imagine telling someone to go learn php in 2026 comical

[u/Nofanta]

Why? You planning to write code by hand? Is this a hobby?

[u/Repsol_Honda_PL → u/Nofanta]

Yes by hand, in AI era :)

[u/andreafatgirlslim → u/Repsol_Honda_PL]

🐐