I read Shannon's original papers and have been trying to grok information theory off and on with only limited success for several years. The book "Information

I read Shannon's original papers and have been trying to grok information theory off and on with only limited success for several years. The book "Information Theory: A Tutorial Introduction" by Stone really helped the principles sink in. For anyone who'd like a textual introduction, I highly recommend it. It's semi-technical - high-school level math helps explain much of the foundational concepts. If you're feeling more adventurous, Cover and Thomas's textbook is the information theory bible. It's very dense but absolutely packed with insight.