electronics book opinions.

Hi James,

Basic Electronics looks very basic from the free sample chapter online.

Practical Electronics for Inventors looks like an interesting book in places, but Amazon's 'surprise me' book page preview shows some pages to be very basic too (just an opinion) - almost to me feels like an intention to waste space. I don't see why nearly an entire page is needed to show some filament lamps, and another entire page on a few forms of connectors. In contrast, AoE packed what looks like twice as many connectors into a half page photo. Similarly the lamps and LEDs page in AoE are in a 1/3 page size photo (of real components, not line drawings) with probably twice as many parts.

No I don't think AoE (or the other two books) is necessary, since people get by without these particular books too, but AoE is the better book of the three if you have the choice - again, just an opinion.

AoE is a more advanced book possibly.

Here are some example pages (size reduced for fair use) so you can compare PE and AoE:

Practical Electronics for Inventors, lamps page:

Practical Electronics for Inventors, a connector page (an inconsistent layout compared with the lamps page - I don't know why):

AoE pages for comparison - an LED page

AoE - a connector page

Hi James,

For the most part I agree with shabaz. I have read the 2nd and 3rd editions of Practical electronics for Inventors multiple times. I am in the process of reading AoE at this time.

Since I am not an engineer but rather a self taught technician I perhaps come at these books from a different perspective. I find the AoE to be much more technical and theoretical than the PEfor I. I have found the PEfor I to be very useful but I have had to be cautious as the 2nd edition is rife with errata and the 3rd edition, while much better, still has unfortunate errata. The AoE is much cleaner of errata but the technical level makes it more difficult for "me" to translate it to practical circuits. If you understand everything in PEforI and want to move on to a more in depth look at electronics then AoE is for you.

John

I would suggest whenever you hit a topic new to you, cross check with the web two other sources to verify information. A safe way to learn more and get correct propective.

C