I've always wanted to get an Arduino myself. I also have an excellent book, it's very simple to understand if you follow it linearly, and it definitely starts

I've always wanted to get an Arduino myself. I also have an excellent book, it's very simple to understand if you follow it linearly, and it definitely starts from the "bottom, up." http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Elements_of_Computing_Systems.html?id=THie6tt-2z8C http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Elements_of_Computin... (The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles; Nisan and Schocken)