Just realised that the last post I made was several months ago - Not Good !
Anyway, taking a break away from Raspberry Pi, I'd like to do a post on the books that have helped me get to grips with the Arduino. (I'm by no means an expert, but these have helped take me from total newbie)
First up is Getting Started with Arduino by the Father of Arduino himself, Massimo Banzi. Don't be fooled by this relatively slim book, it is very useful, something that I only appreciated on a second reading. Looks are deceptive and as I say, written by someone who knows a bit about the Arduino :-)
Second up is Beginning Arduino By Michael Mcroberts. This is a great book to take you from the very beginning to more advanced projects. I find it paced very well and also well written. The author using Fritzing a lot to illustrate the wiring diagrams at the back of the book, my only criticism would be I would like them with the actual text they relate to. Having said that, this is one of my most dog-eared Arduino related books, so it can't be that distracting.
Lastly, the Arduino Cook Book by Michael Margolis. This is collection of what you can think of as recipes for the Arduino, hence the name. I have always thought of this book as a bigger and more in depth version of the getting started book mentioned above. This is also one of my most dog-eared Arduino related books as it is in use constantly.
My advice for anyone wanting to start out in the incredible world of the Arduino is to start with a kit (there are many, many around: i'm in the UK and started with one from Oomlout, there is also one available from Earthshine Electronics, run by the Author of Beginning Arduino) and get your hands dirty as learning in this case is about doing, rather than reading about it, which is something I made the mistake of trying to do. Dive in, have fun :-)
Finally, needless to say eBay is a great source of parts when you start aiming for something bigger than the kits can provide.
Steve