Book recommendations for EE student.

[Creep]

I just finished my first year in the University (ok, still have a few exams left but let's leave it at that), going for a electronics engineering Bachelor's degree. Since summer is almost here, I'm going to have a lot more free time on my hands and would like to use it gain a bit of ground in the electronics field. In the university we have covered basic DC circuit analysis (Thevenin's (and Norton's) Theorems, mesh current analysis and node voltage analysis), more or less the AC steady state analysis in the frequency domain and to some degree the oscillating circuits. The rest of the classes don't have too much in common with electronics specifically, so i don't feel the need to mention them. I have done a lot of reading, but it's mostly smalls bits about lots of things, so I don't feel like I would have built a solid foundation on anything besides that which is covered at the university.

Getting straight to the point: I would like some recommendations for a book on EE for my level (pretty sure that should be considered beginner). Now unlike most people, I don't hate math, I actually am quite fond of math. So if the books covered the theory and backed it up by math calculations, that would be ideal. I'm quite adept at calculus as well, and if I do bump into anything outside of my knowladge range, I'm not afraid to learn from MIT lessons or any other material which can be found on the internet.
On the note of theoretical vs practical: I'm leaning more towards theory for now, but if anyone has anything in mind on the practical side of things that would be considered highly valuable reading material, I'm all ears.

I apologize for the rather long (probably unnecessarily long) post and would like to thank in advance to anyone willing to give some input on the matter.

EDIT: I would like to have some input on "The Art of Electronics" as well. Did a little research on the forums, it seems that we have a lot of fans and a lot of haters here, when it comes to this massive book.

[Neganur]

I found that instead of looking for "The Book" (i.e. thinking that one book will explain everything)  I had better luck looking for material that covered the topic I wanted to study.

If you google the topic you want to know more about, you'll typically run into pdf links from universities in the US (Utah, MIT, California etc).
Also check out the open courseware websites of MIT if you haven't heard about them, they're awesome:  http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm 

Then, there are also a great number of freely available online books (pdfs) from Analog Devices, Linear Technologies etc

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

Just watch this guys lectures: http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2321/Electronics-for-Analog-Signal-Processing-I
There are many bad professors at IIT - by bad I mean how they conduct the lectures. This guy is just amazing! I was frozen to the screen while watching his lectures. I think he has 3 lectures - analog IC is last one in series.

If I Compare similar lectures from MIT for example - to watered down, not enough material.

[Creep]

Cool, thanks for the link. Content sounds pretty good, gonna have to get used to the accent though  .
As for why I was interested in a book rather than reading stuff online by topic: I would like to structure my studies in some way at least. I would rather not first read a lot on a subject than can only be fully comprehended with previous knowledge on another topic and afterwards start researching the thing i needed to know beforehand. I've ran into quite a few difficulties because of this and the whole jumping around tends to create a bit of a mess in my head.
Going by what I saw while reading "The Art of Electronics" (at least the first chapter), it seems rather lackluster in that department.

The online courses however is a whole different story and those follow my ideals exactly, so thanks for the tips, definitely got some enlightenment on the matter.

[ignator]

What was your electronics skill level before starting university? Were you able to read digital schematics? How about analog schematics?
I'm assuming that you are lost in basic circuit operation. Ignore this post if this is not the case.
Most likely your university will never give you the intuitive circuit understanding even after 4-5 years. If this is the case I would recommend picking up books intended for training electronics technicians. You want to understand the intuitive circuit operation without the Ebers-Moll transistor theory approach. You probably have not been introduced to 2port analysis yet. Which will not help in basic circuit understanding.
If your trying to understand analog circuit operation, starting with tubes really makes sense. Their theory is explainable, easy to understand, and once you understand their operation, transistor amplifiers become simple. Then the use of OP-AMPS is easy, once you understand a simple amplifier, and then add the differential input stage.

[Creep]

Sadly I had no prior knowledge on the subject before university as only decided on the field not too long before joining the university (was tinkering with ideas about architecture and mechanical engineering). And yes, I am aware of the fact that what the university is going to provide is probably very limited.
And thanks for the tip on the Vacuum tubes, sounds like a good place to start.
Seems like I'm actually getting some sense of direction on where to start.

P.S. I only started reading this forum a couple weeks ago and I only have one thing to say: the EE community is awesome. Hope I can join the forum one day as a contributor rather than just some newbie asking all sorts of questions.   

[ignator]

Valve is really the correct name for a tube, it describes what it really does. As it controls the electron flow from the Cathode to the plate with a control grid.
So search for "valve tube forums", I think you will find a site that will describe basic operation of this device.

For reference I was in the same 'boat' as you 37 years ago. I did understand digital circuitry. Played with many 7400 TTL devices, and boolean algebra. Made a clock, defrost timer. But had no clue as to analog circuit design other then reading a book on OPAMP theory. I was lost in my 3rd year, so I took a break and attended a tech school for electronic instrument repair. This gave me all the intuitive understanding needed to finish the EE degree.
It really is a missing class (basic circuit operation) in EE, at least where I attended. You will see that digital circuits are analog, (high speed bi-state circuits). So their operation is explained by the same amplifier circuit understanding.
Good luck.


 

[Kilgore]

This may be obvious, but back when I was in school I would sometimes get the next semester's book(s) early for prerequisite courses.  You have to buy them anyway, and often the first few years of courses will use the same books for some time, at least they did at a large university.  Just ask some upperclassmen what books they needed for what courses, or inquire with the TA.  There is always a risk the required books will change, but again you can just ask the TA if they expect that.

My 2 cents on getting a head start, FWIW