i did a lot of chemistry at uni - your question made me think. it's a little like programming - the field is so vast and fundamental that you may as well start

i did a lot of chemistry at uni - your question made me think. it's a little like programming - the field is so vast and fundamental that you may as well start with a topic you're interested in and then dig deep every time you find a word/phrase/assumption you don't get (heads up: there will be a lot). i'd actually say that chem is a difficult subject to learn independently. it is one of those subjects that is best learned with other people and those that know - you learn lots of seemingly disconnected things that only slowly coalesce into a broad understanding. IME for most people, that coalescence takes the first several months of a post-grad project - there's something about being in a lab and discussing chemistry that blends all the bits together. it's been 20 years but the text books at Uni of Auckland were McMurray for Organic chem, Atkins for physical chem and Atkins, Shriver and Langford for Inorganic. Personally I found Atkins a difficult read and would recommend hunting around for an author that you enjoy reading. read In the Pipeline regularly - it's a blog by a medicinal chemist that is quite excellent (his 'things i won't work with' posts are brilliant ;-). there's also a saying in chem that you learn it through your fingertips - pen and paper sketching structures and working with glassware. it's a strange blend of theory, practice and intuition - that's either its biggest appeal or its biggest turnoff... YMMV. if you really are keen, drop me a note - i'm intrigued to see if i could design a curriculum using open source pubs and edX.