Originally posted by Lasse Koskela:
I would also recommend reading Rod Johnson's "One-on-one ..." books.
They're not really design pattern books but they do a good job of making J2EE web applications look good inside!
I just got a copy of Rod Johnson's 'One-on-one j2ee without EJB', the book feels good from the initial chapters. Definitely a must read if you want to do things in the new way.
BTW I got it for Rs400 from India, ie 9bucks in US. That is one way of recuperating the expensive flight tickets to India.