"The Jini Specification" (Addison-Wesley; ISBN 0-201-61634-3) by Arnold, et al is a book I read quite a while back, but I discovered that I had never reviewed it. Better late than never.

This book is very different than most specifications. Most specifications are dry and only cover what. This book is very different than that. It covers why, how, what, and where. Therefore, it turns out to be one of the few specifications I have ever read that can teach you the technology as well as rigidly define it.

The book starts with a high-level overview of the Jini architecture so you can get the lay of the land before starting. The second chapter goes ahead and shows you how to write a Jini client. The chapter 3 shows you how to write a Jini service. It's nice that you can just read 57 pages and be able to use the technology very well. Also, these pages are warm and readable, not the typical cold dry specification.

After this point, the book turns into more of the typical specification type of book. It goes through one by one the Jini related technologies and gives the specification of them. Amazingly this is done in English and not math or logic.

Anyway, the book is useful in that you can learn Jini yet have the specification all in one handy book.