Recently, I finished reading the book Java SE 8 For the Really Impatient. This book covers the main features introduced in Java SE 8, such as Lambda Expressions and Stream API. Also it shows some sweet small features that benefit every day work greatly, namely, the new d ate and time API, the concurrency enhancements, and etc.

This post is a guide for the reading notes of this series. You can jump right into a specific topic from here by clicking the numbers.

• Lambda Expressions: 1. Talks about the fundamentals of lambda expressions in Java SE 8.
• The Stream API: 2, 3, 4. Complete introduction on the Stream API.
• Programming with Lambdas： 5, 6. Explains how to make use of lambda expressions and functional interfaces when building libraries.
• The New Date and Time API: 7, 8. Introduces the new API, and how it iteracts with the old one.
• Concurrency Enhancements: 9, 10, 11. Enhancements on java.util.concurrent.
• Miscellaneous Goodies: 12, 13. Improvements on String, Number classes, Math, Collections, File IO, Annotations, and etc.

I skipped two chapters that I do not think I will use in near future: 1) Chapter 4 JavaFX 2) Chapter 7 the Nashorn JavaScript Engine. Also, Chapter 9 is specially for the good features in Java 7. I think the only way one grasps more of a language or skill is to grow with it. As Java is still evolving, we definitely should keep a close pace and embrace the improvements. You can read these chapters in the original book.