Reading some of the other comments, and my own experience, it might be a good book for someone who has already spent some time playing with circuits. But that

Reading some of the other comments, and my own experience, it might be a good book for someone who has already spent some time playing with circuits. But that's not necessarily an unreasonable hurdle. After all, electronics is about something that happens physically, and maybe getting some tactile experience gets the right brain cells working to be receptive to the theory. Or maybe it's just that the enjoyment of the physical stuff supplies the motivation to learn the textbook stuff. I might think along similar lines if someone asked for a good textbook to learn how to play the cello. When I took electronics in college, from 1st edition AoE, I had already been tinkering with circuits for a few years. And playing the cello. ;-)