Of course, there are dozens of books for beginners in electronics, and many are very good. But here is a book that got 5-star customer reviews in amazon.com, for being UNUSUALLY EASY to read and to understand (in spite of its title), as well as for having a lot of practical info. It has OPTIONAL experiments, none of which uses more than two transistors, 2 capacitors, and/or 2 resistors. The book explains transistors, amplifiers, noise, digital versus analog, decibels, filters, etc., all in simple terms (but with very-much simplified experiments which are described as examples).
If interested, see customer reviews at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0815514670/ref=cm_rev_all_1/103-2039771-7466213?v=glance&s=books&vi=customer-reviews&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER
You can probably buy a used copy cheaper than new, via amazon (or similar site), since the book is used as a college (and vocational sch.) textbook, and students often sell those (to buy more beer!), even tho they really should keep things like this for use later, when they go to work.
If amazon is out of stock (which is often the case since this book is selling well), you can usually get one at
www.barnesandnoble.com .
Posted by Dan Shanefield, the author of this book
http://homepage.mac.com/shanefield/Resume1.html
