The Art of Electronics

1632 by Eric Flint - it became a series. I can read them over and over. - Alternate history, contemplative of everything that makes modern civilization possible and keeps it going. The Art of Electronics - Horowitz and Hill - All the nitty gritty details you'll need if you're to be a good electronics designer The adolescence of P-1 - Thomas Joseph Ryan - Introduced me to the idea of random walks leading to AI. Computer Lib/Dream Machines - Ted Nelson -- Quite a bit of ideas about computers, I read it decades ago. Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake 1805 -- By Eric Sloane -- Early Americans really knew their shit, we tend to think of them as simpler people, this book dispelled me of that stupid notion. Boys Second Book of Electronics - Alfred Morgan, 1957 -- Introduced me to the idea that I could make my own radio or anything electronic I wanted to make.

"The art of electronics" by Horowitz and Hill

The Art of Electronics, Horowitz and Hill

I took a course that used it in college. It is really excellent, but probably hard for a first exposure to electronics unless you are very committed.

> I'm not sure if it's aged well. There are a bunch of people on HN who still do electronic work who could recommend better newer books. Not a professional in this area, but between various HN comments I've read and YouTube channels like EEVblog, I've seen the third edition of this book recommended multiple times as the best book. It's actually sitting on my to-buy list because of that.

Bomber Command by Max Hastings. This book explained the change in Allies attitudes around bombing during WWII from "only barbarians bomb civillians" to the mass fire bombing of heavily populated cities. It was also eye-opening to read about the massive death rate in bomber command. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Command-Pan-Military-Classic... (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Command-Pan-Military-Classics/dp/0330513613/) The Art of Electronics, and especially the student manual that accompanies it. I read these a long time ago, and at the time it was a pretty good introductionto electronics, especially if you bought some cheap second hand test equipment and had a few breadboards and components to do the lab work. I'm not sure if it's aged well. There are a bunch of people on HN who still do electronic work who could recommend better newer books.

The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill It covers nearly all aspects of electronics both theory and practice. It’s still relevant after all these years.

The Art of electronics. Learned more from that than I did doing an EE degree at university. It gets used to this day even though I bought this copy in 1995. I have the latest edition arriving today.

_The Art of Electronics_. As a software guy who sometimes is involved in embedded systems, having a good understanding of what's going on at the resistor/capacitor/transistor level would have helped a lot. I did a bunch of hobby electronics as a teenager, but never had circuit theory. I knew a lot about digital design, but not the analog stuff that the whole world ultimately rests on. So now, when I hear a switching power supply whine in protest, I will think of it as the squeals of pain of the engineers whose life I turned into a living hell because of my lack of appreciation for P = IV. I’m truly sorry. I wasn’t thinking. (And this is just the first chapter of that book).

I took the class at Harvard created by the authors of this. As they pointed out, it's not a textbook, it's a reference book. So it's very hard to learn electronics by reading it.

The Art of electronics by Hill & Horowitz for electronics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics

==For electronics: The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition (interview with the one of the authors, if you're unconvinced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCI3B5eT9NA ) ==For finances: The Millionaire Next Door (filled with a lot of interesting facts and habits from extensive research) ==For food/cooking: Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking

The Art of Electronics and the accompanying student manual.

The Art of Electronics - Horowitz and Hill I'm a software guy, with a bunch of firmware experience, but I sometimes do data-center wrangling when I'm not slinging C++ and PHP around. It's really good to have a grounding in electronics and how things work under the hood, so you can have an appreciation for how (say) twisted pairs work, or how really fast serial cables work. Just knowing what's involved in pushing a signal from point A to point B in a rack or on a long-haul wire will help you make better decisions about what to buy, or decide to rip out. AoE is a great practical introduction to how a lot of modern electronics stuff works. It has me tinkering with transistors and diodes again, and I may have to tell the wife I want an oscilloscope for Christmas . . .

I think everything you have said is true, but it does not address the original question: "What's a good book to teach me the basics of electronics, e.g., why do circuits need resistors, when do I use a capacitor, etc?" I.e. he wants to learn how analog electronics work, amongst other things. I own The Art of Electronics, but find it a bit theoretical. If you just starting out you might even wants something aimed at high-school kids (no offense intended) If you like to learn by being taught (vs. self-taught) then sign up for class at a local school, or if you don't have the time/money then try sneaking into some lectures at your local university (I don't know how illegal / difficult that is in the US, so beware). If you do want to be self-taught then see if you can borrow the lecture notes from someone who has taken electronic engineering. Or try this http://www.varsitynotes.com/electrical_engineering/electroni... (http://www.varsitynotes.com/electrical_engineering/electronics.html) I would highly recommend buying a kit (lots have been mentioned) and if necessary supplementing it with components from your local electronic components store. And take things apart,…

I'll 2nd on Art of electronics.. But knowing the basics before touching it would be better

Art of Electronics is a very good book, but if you want to learn from a fun / programming point of view I highly recommend "Making Things Talk", by Tom Igoe. http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510510/

the art of electronics is cool, but the ARRL handbook is even better.

I've wondered about this myself and have found that the most common responses usually reference, "The Art of Electonics". Great book, sure, and very heavy on theory. There are a few books out now that touch on the Arduino platform - the Make/O'Reilly site has a few. Additionally, there are a couple of folks using a Sanguino/Arduino for building a rep rap, so it might be a good start. I've found "Electronics - Self Teaching Guide" by Harry Kybett to be a decent introduction to electronics in general. I also picked up "Embedded C Programming and the Atmel AVR" which is regularly recommended for the AVR platform.

For me, electronics only started to make sense after this book: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/05213... (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957)

When you're ready for a bit of theory, the Art of Electronics is good stuff, with broad coverage.

One of the best resources for getting a practical handle on electronics is the ARRL Handbook. They've released a version every year for many years now. http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-hb2008 By the way, The Art Of Electronics has a pretty nice lab manual that goes with it....