how should i get started in electronics

[Tom10000]

what parts should i buy and basic equipment to learn electronics
and also what books or websites should i use to learn

[BradC]

Something along these lines isn't a bad way to dip your toe.

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2209-maxitronix-200-in-1-electronics-lab-kit/

[cowasaki]

There is a lot of stuff on youtube and generally on the internet...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi4UZoZM0Iw9_tTeRjZd_bA
https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=350612601E2DBFDE

and many more....

With the knowledge you will need tools and parts

Temperature controlled soldering iron
Solder sucker and braid
Solder
Helping hands solder assistant
Small screwdrivers
Multimeter
Bench power supply

Parts

Look on ebay/banggood etc for kits - Kit of resistors, small capacitors, selection of transistors, electrolytic capacitors, diodes, LEDs plus pots, zener diodes, connectors, wire, strip board, point to point board, etc

realistically you could get absolutely everything from the above lists for £150 or less.  Ask in the buy/sell section as some people might be upgrading stuff.  A £10 multimeter will do for 6 months then when you buy a better one it will be helpful to have two as you often need to measure two things at the same time.

Oh and maybe look at Arduinos....  You can get a basic 328 kit with lots of extra modules and components for well under £40 if you are happy to wait a few weeks from china.

[gnif]

Something along these lines isn't a bad way to dip your toe.

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2209-maxitronix-200-in-1-electronics-lab-kit/

  That's what got me started too back in 1994

[LoFi]

Something along these lines isn't a bad way to dip your toe.

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2209-maxitronix-200-in-1-electronics-lab-kit/

Agreed.  This is a great way to learn.  It's easy to experiment with the different components to quickly see how they effect each other, learning the basics of voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, inductors, and semiconductors.  And the little project booklets that come with the Elenco sets (here in the U.S.) are pretty good too. 

I started my grandson with an Arduino kit (he likes programming too).  But I quickly realized that he needed to learn some more basic electronics stuff first, so I bought him one of these kits.

[davy peleman]

i started with a good book, a breadboard, some resistors, transistors, some leds and caps. i learned about resistance, occilators, amplifiers. all these circuits where very simple and made with common transistors. alot of experiments with votage dividers and caps. learnig the difference about ac and dc. also a simple multimeter is a must. the book i read is belgian, i don't think there's a translation of the book. but any book that teaches  the basics will suffice.
so find a good book where they really begin with all the basics and which is illustrated with simple circuits you can build. so you can see for yourself what they mean. or as suggested by an electronics kit. the book included in such package will be very good to begin with. also this last option will be the cheapest and easiest to build circuits on. a breadboard can give bad contacts and as a beginner you then think you've done something wrong. where in fact it's a bad connection on the breadboard.
hope you can start soon, it really is a satisfaying hobby. arduino is nice, but first you must be able to make stuff the arduino can control. i also bought a starter kit of arduino but it taught me not much about electricity in general.

[rstofer]

what parts should i buy and basic equipment to learn electronics
and also what books or websites should i use to learn

Learn what?  Electronics is a vast field.
At what depth?  Hobby electronics is fun, electronics theory is a mathematical puzzle.  There is some seriously deep math involved with some electronics concepts.

What kinds of things do you want to do in electronics?

Microcontrollers is a popular theme and it's hard to compete with the Arduino as a platform.  Every project that can be built with an Arduino has been built and the description is on Google.

Robotics is an extension of microcontrollers and adds a mechanical component.

Audio seems to attract a lot of attention.

RF and radio communications attract a lot of hobbyists.

Analog computing is kind of fun once you understand a bit about differential equations.  Old school but undergoing a revival because analog runs in real time.

Introduction to electronics would probably include books like The Art of Electronics (theory) and Learning the Art of Electronics (lab manual).

Before you can get any meaningful replies, you need to discuss what you want to do with electronics.

[Simon]

Something along these lines isn't a bad way to dip your toe.

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2209-maxitronix-200-in-1-electronics-lab-kit/

  That's what got me started too back in 1994

I had one too a year or two beforehand, it was my first experience. Unfortunately I then moved to italy where I was the local weirdo with no friends and no one got the electronics bug thing so I took to carting old TV's home to get parts from, had a huge collection of resistors in tea bag paper bags and boxes and at some point found a friendly TV repairer that would get parts for me as in italy then you could not just place and order with RS