Lisp

Is SBCL really that good? Are there better CL compilers?

no, there is no substitute.

how can I use lisp with java :)?

It's decent, but you have a lot of alternatives.
Besides SBCL, you might want want to look at ClozureCL, ECL and maybe CLISP or ABCL. If you don't mind commercial ones, there's also AllegroCL and Lisp-Works, and some OS-specific ones such as Scieneer CL and Corman CL.

I mostly just use SBCL and ClozureCL, but others are fine too depending on what you needs are.

>>3
ABCL

>>4
what's a good book to learn lisp?

<<5
Which Lisp?
For Common Lisp: Practical Common Lisp, maybe also ANSI CL (the latter is quite a bit more incomplete and a bit elitist in what features it teaches) as introductory books. The Hyperspec and Common Lisp The Language 2 as the language reference (hyperspec and the ANSI's CL standard have the same .tex at their base, except the standard isn't as interactive and costs money; CLTL2 is a commentary+reference prior to standardization, there are some differences). Some other people also prefer starting with PAIP (Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming) instead of PCL or ANSI CL, which is fine too, but would be more similar to starting with SICP instead of the RnRS standard. Other notable books: Graham's On Lisp to learn more about macro programming, Keene S.E's Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp, which introduces CLOS in more detail (the other books also do this, but this is dedicated to it), and AMOP (Art of the Metaobject Protocol - it describes the CL's MOP, which isn't part of the standard, but tends to constitute the common base on which CLOS is built, but it's much more flexible and advanced, it lets you build arbitrary OO systems, as well as extend CLOS widely - to put it more simply, it's like defining CLOS in CLOS, in a metacircular manner). There are also other notable books, but you can find them after you're more familiar with the language.
For Scheme: the R5RS (and previous/latter ones) standard, it's small enough that it should consitute a simple introduction. SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) to actually understand how Scheme is meant to be used and programming in general, it introduces a lot of very interesting ideas. The Lambda papers to understand earlier Scheme's as well as concepts such as why Lambda is the ultimate ``goto'' (due to TCO). Queinnec C. LISP in Small Pieces (LiSP) to learn more about implementing compilers and interpreters (PAIP and SICP also have a lot on this topic, but LiSP is more complete).


When learning any of these languages, you should get a good implementation and environment, otherwise learning will be impeded and difficult.
For Common Lisp? Emacs+SLIME+Paredit+Redshank(optional)+implementation(such as SBCL or ClozureCL, but all notable ones are supported). Watch the SLIME introduction video (about an hour long) to get the basic use/setup. Some commercial Lisps also have decent GUIs, there's also OpenGenera if you want to go retro.
For Scheme? Try Racket.

>>5
Land of Lisp is good too. You should read at least two different books. Different perspectives.