Python
Learning Python, by Mark Lutz and David Ascher (O’Reilly, 1999). A nice programmer’s introduction to my favorite language, an excellent companion to Java. The book includes an introduction to Jython, which allows you to combine Java and Python in a single program (the Jython interpreter is compiled to pure Java bytecodes, so there is nothing special you need to add to accomplish this). This language union promises great possibilities.
