I should mention that I’m looking for info about java the platform, not java the language (unsurprisingly for a clojure forum)

I can't recommend a book but here are some relevant links that other people here have recommended before: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~pugh/java/memoryModel/ https://gpetri.github.io/publis/jmm-vamp07.pdf https://shipilev.net/blog/2014/jmm-pragmatics/ http://gee.cs.oswego.edu/dl/jmm/cookbook.html This one is a book with a separate chapter about the memory model: https://jcip.net/

A comment by Alex Miller about the JCiP book in particular: “[...] a great book [...], well worth reading even if you’re not using Java”

Thank you for your recommendations!

Also flew by on twitter this week: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/16/gctuning/introduction-garbage-collection-tuning.html#GUID-326EB4CF-8C8C-4267-8355-21AB04F0D304

(disclaimer: have not read) https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/optimizing-java/9781492039259/

My real advice is to learn this topic like any other topic: little by little, from easier to harder and driven by real needs. You don't need a book to google the most common GC options, to read up an overview of the different available GCs, etc. GCs are a constantly changing topic anyway in JVM land Finally, one of the best things I've ever done in my years of clojuring is paying for a personal Yourkit license. Around xmas it will be cheaper they always have the same xmas campaign. Having the best product, with the best UI and the most in-depth options will encourage you to actually use it. I still do on a daily basis (basically I tweak my tooling to always attach Yourkit beforehand to every JVM I spawn)