Database Programming With Jdbc and Java

First off, be warned that this book was grossly mis-titled. If you're a beginner hoping to learn about JDBC and Java, look elsewhere. If you're interested in getting an overview on more advanced topics related to database design and other not-so-related topics, then you may want to add one star.

I read this book for final year project hoping to learn more about using JDBC to access databases for my project. The preface claimed that basic knowledge of Java and SQL was enough. Did the book cover JDBC? Yes, in about 3 short chapters from basic to advanced to optional. For someone who don't know JDBC, those three chapters will not give you more than hints of what can be done.

The rest of the book? It touches advanced topics like RMI, JNDI, EJB, a bit on design patterns, distributed architecture, persistence, and even, strangely, Swing; apparently in an attempt to show how JDBC is used in the real world. As a student, reading those chapters is like reading a chemistry book. None of those chapters attempt to explain things in a big picture, but instead dives straight into the advanced topics as if the reader is expected to know the basics.

It's a book that's badly advertised and expects the reader to know very much about the topics being discussed, but doesn't actually say that the reader should.