path to understanding J2EE

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Hello,
I'm a novice to J2EE. Can someone let me know the path/thread i should follow to understanding J2EE architecture? I'm a SCJP2. I have decent OOPS concepts(design patterns and all that stuff) and an abstract idea of remote computing. Can i get to know about J2EE just by reading books without any practical exposure? Is that feasible. I have absolutely no way in which i can lay hands on J2EE in the context of my bread-earner i.e., my job. We use MS technologies at work. I have websphere loaded on my home pc though.
Any suggestions, links,......
Thanks.

[Ramdas Hegde]

Sun has a lot of useful material available through its Enterprise Blueprints (http://java.sun.com/blueprints/enterprise/index.html) which is a good place to start. There is the Petstore demo which can be also used as a good learning aid. But nothing beats actually trying out the code samples using some Application server to try out the concepts that you read in the Blueprints.
Ramdas