hi , i ask her for a set of books to read sequentially for mastering Java provided that I am already a PHP developer and fully familiar with OOP techniques ..
I read 10 chapters in "Introduction to Java programming" that was a great book but i ask masters here to know best available choices for me ..
If you want Book any how then for the Core + kick start of EE Java i would suggest
Sun Certified Java Programmer SCJP Latest Version,Head First Servlets & JSP by Kathy Sierra -Kathy Sierra
But Go Practically , Try Quick examples, forums,Standard Documentations[JavaDocs]
You specifically mention OOP, which is great, because it's a big part of being a good OO developer in any language. Since UML is the language of OO, I would recommend Java Modeling In Color With UML: Enterprise Components and Process:
Not a book but a great resource: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/
You shouldn't truly consider yourself a "master" of Java without reading this book (and understanding it)
Java Concurrency in Practice
Eckel's "Thinking in Java" works well for some people. There is no "best book", since people have different learning styles.
Head First Java is good- I like the Head First model- so you might give that a try instead.
First: Any first book should be decent, since you already know how to code. Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java is free, and good. I learned using Deitel & Deitel.
Second: As a second book, I'd strongly recommend a Data Structures text, something like Lafore's book. It's a second-college-course-in-CS type of text, and reading a data structures book will benefit your programming pretty much forever.
Later: After those, I'd pick up books on specialties that I wanted to learn. What do you want to do with Java? Learning Tomcat or JBoss would probably be great for web work. Spring, Hibernate, also great.
Head First Java is a book that I will always cherish.
The latest edition of Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel is something I would recommend. Dietel & Dietel is also good, but since you are already familiar with OOP concepts, it won't help much.
Moreover, The Art and Science Of Java scores in its content.
Once you are familiar with the Java environment, you can switch on to other books for Javascript, Servlets, JSP etc., as web development is your goal,afterall.