This is an old thread - but I'd like to add one more book to the list & perhaps suggest that it might be even better for a beginner than "Art of Electronics."
This is "
Practical Electronics for Inventors," by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. The 3rd edition is available in paperback for about
$20 from Amazon; a 4th edition is apparently on the way.
For $20 you get a lot of book. It is similar to "Art of Electronics" in having big-format pages crammed full of smallish type with lots of illustrations - a lot of material at 1,000 pages or so. And all of it good stuff in my estimation - speaking as a beginner myself, but one who has looked at enough books to get a sense of what's out there.
As the title suggests, it's aimed at DIY'ers.
It is an entirely SS book & very up to date on the technology. It's got plenty of math; but much like "Art of Electronics" it's a book about craft not learning math for math's sake. You are told when the math is and isn't crucial & what shortcuts you can take or tricks you can use to shorten laborious calculations. Like Horowitz and Hill, Scherz and Monk teach you to learn by doing - by making circuits - not scribbling practice problems on paper. For simulation software they like CircuitMaker which I guess is OK though I don't much like the Windows version I just installed.
Why do I say it might be better for a beginner than "Art"? In fact I have an older but quite serviceable edition of "Art," but am going to switch to this book. The biggest problem I have with Horowitz and Hill is that they frequently rush through subjects, especially when a bit of math is involved; perhaps that's because they they intended their text to be used at university where the teacher could fill in any gaps. Scher and Monk, on the other hand, are explicitly writing for non-students & seem more willing to slow down & provide as much info as needed for understanding a tricky bit.
Some info on the authors from the Amazon page:
Paul Scherz is a physicist/mechanical engineer who received his B.S. in physics from the University of Wisconsin. He is an inventor/hobbyist in electronics, an area he grew to appreciate through his experience at the University's Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics and the Department of Plasma Physics.
Dr. Simon Monk has a degree in Cybernetics and Computer Science and a PhD in Software Engineering. Monk spent several years as an academic before he returned to industry, co-founding the mobile software company Momote Ltd. He has been an active electronics hobbyist since his early teens and is a full time writer on hobby electronics and open source hardware. Dr. Monk is the author of numerous electronics books, including 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius and Arduino + Android Projects for the Evil Genius.
