Exploring Java (2nd Edition) by Patrick Niemeyer and Joshua Peck (O'Reilly & Associates, September 1997).

Exploring Java 2nd edition is a great place for experienced programmers to get up to speed on the Java programming language. In a straight forward, and highly theoretical approach to the fundamentals of Java, the authors Patrick Niemeyer and Joshua Peck give you grand tour of the language without much hand holding. If you're new to programming, this may not be the book for you. The pace is accelerated, and there are many comparisons to the way code is written in other languages such as C and C++ as compared to writing code that will produce the same results in Java. If the reader is not familiar with either of those languages, or any of the dialects of them, the greatness and simplicity, of the Java language may be missed.
    Much of the beginning chapters are devoted to object-oriented programming, with considerable attention paid to objects, classes and subclasses. Due to the fact that Java has stemmed from a networked computing environment, two whole chapters are devoted to networking. Both chapters provide clarity and a not so easily found comprehensive account of how simple it is to create a networked Java application or applet.
    Overall I would say Exploring Java is an excellent crash course to Java, my only complaint is there was not enough full code samples. By the time I've finished a computer book, I like to have typed in at least half of the book! --Jason Luster

Learning Perl (2nd Edition) by Randal L. Schwartz & Tom Christiansen (O'Reilly & Associates, July 1997).

This book would make a great classroom text. At the end of every chapter there are exercises to reinforce what you have read. There are even answer provided in the appendix to see "one way to doing it." Although this is a beginning Perl book, the author does assume a rudimentary knowledge of programming. If you never programmed before, this book probably isn't the way to learn Perl. But if you know about variables and control structures, this book will help you learn Perl without boring you too much with the basics.
    The book is divided into chapters with each chapter covering a core Perl topic. The topics range from scalar data and control structures to more advanced topics like CGI programming and Perl modules. On the way it touches on hashes, regular expressions, file handles, process management and more. It does all this in an easily readable, personal style. It is one of the few programming books I actually started reading cover-to-cover. Although I ended up using it as a reference (it does have tons of brief code examples), it is definitely intended as, and excels at, being a hands-on, step-by-step tutorial. --Ryan Lathouwers

Unix Power Tools (2nd Edition) by Peek, O'Reilly and Loukides (O'Reilly & Associates, August 1997).

This book is king. Unix Power Tools covers all knowledge levels. Although it would be just as useful for the newbie as the power user, it excels at taking the intermediate user to the next level. What doesn't this book cover would be easier to expand upon than what it does. It's a beefy book with 9 parts encompassing 53 chapters and over 1000 pages. It gives you nifty tips, tricks and tools to use on everything from logging in to regular expressions to custom vi commands to shell programming to logging back out. It covers a little bit of everything.
    This book is all about examples and covers the three major shells: sh, ksh, and csh. It also shows different ways to do the same thing. Although the books chapters are organized by topic, this book is definitely meant to be browsed and referenced. The book is well organized and comes with a weighty forty page index to help you find what you're looking for. It also comes with a CD-ROM of useful programs and utilities mentioned throughout the book.
    This book is so comprehensive and fun to read that it's a must have for any Unix enthusiast. If I could only own one Unix book, this book would definitely be in the running. --Ryan Lathouwers

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Installing Linux on an AlphaStation 200.