Best books and Kit

Steve,

Books are a difficult one, there's such a wide range of things to cover and the subject can rapidly get complex. For example, most of my books from college start on page one by throwing you into the shark infested waters of complex notation, trig and other high level maths that looks very intimidating. Unfortunately it's all relevant.

As for tools, while I generally agree with shabaz I'd say a lot depends on how serious you are. If you are serious, then the advice is likely to be that if you already have soldering iron and multimeter, go buy better ones

Get a manual spring loaded desolder pump (or better, a proper vacuum driven one), a solderless breadboard for prototyping with pin-through-hole stuff.

While a scope is a good investment, they still cost a lot even on places like ebay.  If you're going to be doing largely digital stuff (very common these days) then why not try something like a Open Logic Sniffer (http://dangerousprototypes.com/open-logic-sniffer/) instead ?  While it's true a logic analyser can be a tad complex, so can a scope for someone who's not used one before and the OLS is effectively a (very cheap) digital-only scope with a few very useful features that don't tend to appear on scopes that cost less than a car.

One thing that will probably prove invaluable is a reasonable, adjustable, bench PSU that has it's own voltage and current meters, ideally with adjustable current limit.

If you're going to do a lot of surface mount stuff, I can easily recommend getting a second soldering iron. Or if you're serious enough, a proper hot air pencil.

As shabaz points out you can quickly spend a small fortune. Whatever you do, try to buy decent quality tools - it really is worth it in the end.

Steve,

Books are a difficult one, there's such a wide range of things to cover and the subject can rapidly get complex. For example, most of my books from college start on page one by throwing you into the shark infested waters of complex notation, trig and other high level maths that looks very intimidating. Unfortunately it's all relevant.

As for tools, while I generally agree with shabaz I'd say a lot depends on how serious you are. If you are serious, then the advice is likely to be that if you already have soldering iron and multimeter, go buy better ones

Get a manual spring loaded desolder pump (or better, a proper vacuum driven one), a solderless breadboard for prototyping with pin-through-hole stuff.

While a scope is a good investment, they still cost a lot even on places like ebay.  If you're going to be doing largely digital stuff (very common these days) then why not try something like a Open Logic Sniffer (http://dangerousprototypes.com/open-logic-sniffer/) instead ?  While it's true a logic analyser can be a tad complex, so can a scope for someone who's not used one before and the OLS is effectively a (very cheap) digital-only scope with a few very useful features that don't tend to appear on scopes that cost less than a car.

One thing that will probably prove invaluable is a reasonable, adjustable, bench PSU that has it's own voltage and current meters, ideally with adjustable current limit.

If you're going to do a lot of surface mount stuff, I can easily recommend getting a second soldering iron. Or if you're serious enough, a proper hot air pencil.

As shabaz points out you can quickly spend a small fortune. Whatever you do, try to buy decent quality tools - it really is worth it in the end.