Not exactly a book teaching electronics, but once you become comfortable with it all, I strongly suggest "Gordon McComb's Gadgeteer's Goldmine!: 55 Space-Age Projects" (ISBN: 0071559833)
It's full of awesome (but somewhat dangerous) electronics projects that include such things as creating a high voltage power supply and making one of those 'plasma globe' things.

Take a look at this recent Slashdot thread.

Well I always wanted to get into electronics so I can across this kit
and it's the most fun I've had in along time. I now know how to read the color codes on resisters,what a bi-led is and how it works and how voltage high and voltage low translates to on/off to make a microcontroller take different actions.
And I always wanted to be able to read schematics and now I'm getting a taste of it all although I'm sure I'll need more books in the future if I want all the nitty gritty details.

Understanding basic circuit analysis is essential but the problem is that you can get relatively far (or so it may seem) without having a solid grasp, but you'll run into problems sooner or later. Circuit analysis (with passive elements: resistors, capacitors, and inductors) is very mathematical and abstract and there aren't a lot of fun projects to do -- most textbooks just have problems to work out by hand and with SPICE. If you could get through most of a college-level introductory circuit analysis textbook, you'd be off to a great start.

Learning digital logic next would be the best way to go. Digital logic is extremely simple and you can do a lot with the 74-series parts.

Then, learning about analog electronics with diodes, bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), and field effect transistors (FETs) is the next step and is likely to be the most difficult. The online documentation on these topics I've run into is pretty awful.


College textbooks are great for all this stuff, especially digital logic. It would take a lot of self-discipline to work through a circuits textbook and electronics would be extremely difficult (you might as well forget about teaching an electronics course to yourself), but it would still help to have a proper textbook as a reference on how transistors and amplifier circuits work even if you don't plow through the book cover to cover. You can fill in the rest with various projects and examples online as well as experimentation and simulation.

Digital logic is something that you can and should learn from a college-level textbook. The subject is very easy to grasp and experiment with and the textbooks I've seen are all really good and suitable for beginners because the math involved is so light.

As you're posting on GameDev.net, why not concider this:

The XGameStation - Game Console Starter Kit

The book is really good and teaches all the basics of electronics. And let's you do fun stuff, for example how build a machine that has got it's own cpu that runs your program to switch ports on and off. You could do alot with that, either do stuff like game consoles, or robotics, if that's what you're after.

/MindWipe

The good thing about the kits is that all of the parts needed for the experiments in their included book are provided. It would be cheaper to buy them individually, but it might be pretty annoying to determine what you'll need and to find the precise parts. For instance, you might need a capacitor, but when you go to the store they only have electrolytic ones and you'll wonder whether they will work instead of the ceramic one the experiment manual recommended. Or, the book may use one family of chips and your local store only carries another family. Or, you might find a part rated at 3.3V instead of the 5V recommended; or, you might accidentally buy an LED with series resistor and not realize it, etc. etc.

Basically, when it comes to components, unfortunately there is no "standard set" for learning or otherwise. So, if you want everything hassle-free, the kits are a good way to do it.

A big second for "The Art Of Electronics" here. Granted, it only covers the very very basics in one, skimmed over chapter (stuff like Ohms law, the Kirchoff ones, and so on), however you don't really need more than that IMO. After that, it really does explain things in easy-to-understand terms, and actually gives you practical advice, rather than just theoretical knowledge.

I'd also highly recommend "Electronics : Circuits and Devices". It's a fabulous book, the first chapter centred on basic circuit elements, and values, and exactly what they mean (mathematically). It then goes onto teaching you the fundementals of transistors, and eventually goes on to Op-Amps, amplifier circuits, and so on. Everything is covered in a lot of detail, and is rather mathematical (you AT LEAST need to be very comfortable with calculus). You'll also learn quite a bit of semiconductor chemistry with this book.

That's all I can think of really books wise (certainly the only two on my shelf that are suitable for beginners). One thing I have noticed though, is that there really aren't any online references that are even remotely any good, which is a shame.