jsp NullPointerException求解

我是JSP初学者,我在学习教程上的光盘时,运行有关数据库的程序时出现问题,如下:
type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

org.apache.jasper.JasperException
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:370)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:291)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)

root cause

java.lang.NullPointerException
database.BookDB.getBooks(BookDB.java:35)
org.apache.jsp.bookcatalog_jsp._jspService(org.apache.jsp.bookcatalog_jsp:134)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:97)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:322)