Well, as i'm a young programmer, regarding that I haven't studied that much java from books, I dont know if i can tell you how to start.
But I have a point: I think that considering that you have no background in programming, consider this:
Try some beginner's books (Java programming for dummies is a start, according to Mr. Westland), and dont try to learn it faster, try to really understand how does it works and why you need to do some procedures when programming.
You'll see, if you continue to programming, that it is much more important for you to know why you do something than only knowing how to do it right.
I would suggest for you to take a study on the programming process, you see, here in Brazil, last thing we learn on software development graduation is the java language.
I'm not trying to tell you that you'll need to know a lot of things before learning java, but you cant expect to make big softwares in few time...
Take your time for your study, if possible study the OOP before going into java, you'll understand it more clearly.
I can't tell you much, Because i'm only 16, and learned java by myself only on looking to codes and trying to do it (of course I had an base on programming before that).
So, i miss a deep study only in java theory, because in the practice i've learned how to use java to supply the needs of the software, and no book will learn you how to logically use the language, you can be a master at java's theory, but if you want to develop good software (not only on java), you need to have a bigger capacity to think logically, and to learn new things every day.
That's my point.
I pretty much think that I haven't helped you in nothing, but worth the try!