I guess I could recommend to you 'Introduction to Machine Learning' by Ethem Alpaydin : http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10341&ttype=2 http:

I guess I could recommend to you 'Introduction to Machine Learning' by Ethem Alpaydin : http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10341&ttype=2 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10341&#... I find it is less brutal than Bishop's book, providing insightful analogies. It won't make you an expert, but it will give you a solid starting point.