All I know is Kathy Sierra's book on Java was pretty much my first intro into programming (SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide). I've gone on to become a software engineer for 7-8 years now. But I still swear by that seemingly simple book because it was so well-written.

And as Jeff Atwood and many others have written, I know whatever she writes about on this or any other subject is a lot more correct than people realize. Just thought I'd register that.