I've always been a fan of the Head First series. They are just not boring books. It's not just text and "interesting" pictures and examples, they go crazy. I remember fixing an error in the program that sang "99 bottles of beer on the wall." They've done Java, Design Patterns, Servlets & JSP, and EJB and now, HTML.
Graeme Williams has reviewed the new book from O'Reilly Media. If you're looking for some sample content, Head First Labs has some sample chapters and more information.
