For AJAX,
you should know HTML, XML and Javascript first. Also, getting dirty with interactive web pages will help you understand AJAX better.
The best book for JSP is the only one I read, which is the HF JSP/Servlets like you have
. Really though, the HF series is *VERY* good and I have quite a few others from them too. There's even a HF AJAX book too.
The advantages of learning JSP is it runs on multi-platforms, and it's easier (for me anyway) to keep a mindset in Java when developing. Using other templates in the past, I've had to switch to whatever scripting language was being used in the template, which becomes more moving parts and complexity.
Aloha,
Doug
-- Nothing is impossible if I'mPossible