I was going to suggest the Mims books as well. He had quite a few of them. I have several (or did at one point); the basic electronics is a decent intro, and

I was going to suggest the Mims books as well. He had quite a few of them. I have several (or did at one point); the basic electronics is a decent intro, and then there are good ones on op-amps and the 555 timer. If you are totally new to hardware hacking it might not be a waste of your time to play around a little with some of those circuits just so you can learn how to wire up an IC on a breadboard. Plus even if you only think you're going to do embedded systems stuff, eventually you're going to want to interface with the rest of the world without going through a PC, and knowing a little about analog circuits or old-school TTL will come in handy. They were great books and it's a sad commentary on Radio Shack if they no longer carry them.