Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

They have legendary status but they aren’t very good books. In some cases they are quite misleading. Unfortunately I don’t think there’s anything better out there yet at that level. I remember having to unlearn stuff when I progressed past the very limited explanations.

Electronics as a subject is one of those things that’s really difficult to explain without a basic understanding of maths and he skirts well around that where possible.

If you know how to juggle numbers, probably better to start with The Art of Electronics.

Ok found a PDF and scanned through it. This appears to be a rehash of older material, going back as far as the 90s, as I recognise some of the graphics and explanations. Newnes seem to make a great effort to retitle and reuse stuff in this capacity. It doesn’t look like a terrible book to be fair but limited in explanation and use. Worthy of the title perhaps.

If I was at ground zero now I’d probably buy that, then do Khan Academy algebra and calculus, then pick up Art of Electronics and then Sedra/Smith.

Art of Electronics is really important as it discusses applied theory rather than just theory. The real world is a lot less ideal and has edge cases and problems galore in it and concerns which don’t even appear in theoretical texts.

I honestly wish I had all this stuff as a kid. Had to put up with local library contents which were full of garbage.

I have the physical copy of the last edition. It is good. For total beginners it might be a notch to fast tho.

The introduction has been rewritten completely from former editions as far as I can tell, and to my judgment has a better pacing and a friendlier tone. For those who already have a little bit of knowledge from tinkering around and seek to deepen their understanding it is definitly very much recommended.

As an electronics teacher, I don't think it is specifically that learning from books is difficult but that it is hard to strike the balance between theory and practice, the high level and the low level.

My approach has been to ignore a lot of detail until it is needed to understand what is happening on the macro level.

For example, you don't need to understand electrons especially travelling opposite to current, which can be especially challenging, until we might discuss why some components have a higher rated power than others or why we cannot control a large motor with a small transistor, at which point we can introduce current.

Why is this interesting? An intro to electronics book locked behind a paywall...