I honestly recommend Java in a Nutshell. Most Java/any_other_lang introduction books are for totally novice readers explaining the concept of a loop for pages and recursion for a chapter... You can start writing Java programs within two days with this book. Of course it will take you a long time to understand what is going on under the hood and how to use all the available framework. But once the language itself is mastered, it is easy to get along even with google only resources.
