Let me just quote myself from another post on "Practical Electronics for Inventors".
Two years ago, I started electronics as a complete
beginner, there were two books that I found very helpful to start :
- Make : Electronics from Charles Platt (which is at a lower level than Practical electronics ..)
- Practical Electronics for Inventors (which has also the advantage of being very cheap).
Then I went to "The Art of Electronics" which is a pure marvel. But it was too difficult as a first step,
because of the too rich content. So Practical Electronics was a good intermediary step for
The art of Electronics.
Now that know a little bit more, I never go back to "Make: Electronics", but I come back to "Practical electronics",
and most often to "The art of Electronics" which is the kind of book that you will never master completely.
Every time you read again a chapter, you find something new.
In addition to that, I would say that if you are already familiar with electronics, you can go directly to AOE. The difficulty I mention is not from the technical part, but from the density of the content. The mathematical part is limited to a minimum, and summarised in a 3 pages appendix ( cosine, sine, exponential, derivative ).
I have read it entirely once, and then go back to it regularly as a reference. I am really looking forward getting my new copy, and I am anticipating the joy I will have to read it again entirely in this new edition, which looks extremely promising from the detailed Table of content.