I bought and am using the Roberts, Heller & Ernest Java2 Certification Study Guide (a.k.a. R&H 1.2 book). I highly recommend it, both for general Java familiarization and advice, as well as the certification guide. BUY THIS BOOK. It's worth it. Roberts, et al present the material needed without any extraneous fluff, AND provide excellent, PRACTICAL suggestions on programming style, tips for robust code, even solid design suggestions, all through the book. This one is moving up on my "must have" list of solid technical works. As far as I know, it is the ONLY book that discusses the Sun Developer exams, and is singularly useful for that alone. I like this book. I have one regret. The last roughly 300 pages are a stripped-down regurgitation of the JDK documentation. I would have preferred that Sybex saved the trees, and pointed people at the more complete, more useful, "free" electronic version published by Sun. Thicker books do NOT mean "worth more" unless they are completely filled with useful material. By page count, 30% of the book is useless. That said, BUY THIS BOOK. It's worth it. Respectfully, Gre