This book is set up to be something of a cross between a learning exercise (where you would read from front to back), and a cookbook (where you can skip around without concern). For the most part, you can feel free to look through the table of contents or index, and find what you're looking for. However, as many of the subjects in this book are interrelated (such as generics, the for/in statement, and autoboxing), you may find yourself reading an article that assumes knowledge from a previous section of the book. In these cases, just browse the referenced chapter, and you should be all set. A little extra learning is a good thing anyway, right?