Art of Electronics, Horowitz and Hill. As a teenager, I had messed around with guitar amplifiers and effects pedals, and had made some gadgets by copying circuits from magazines. AoE (plus the professor who taught from it of course) made my understanding of transistors and op amps click. The treatment of electronic noise remains useful to me today, nearly 40 years later.
Transistor Transistor Logic followed by Z-80 Microcomputer Handbook, both published by Howard Sams and if I recall correctly, sold at Radio Shack. These books were clear enough that a teenager could grasp the concepts. Learning a relatively simple processor was a valuable foundation for learning microcontrollers and digital interfacing.
Turbo Pascal Manual, for versions 1 through 5. Those manuals were so clear and complete. They are probably the last manuals that I ever read cover to cover. That was kind of at the point where systems got too complex for any mere mortal to learn one completely.
I've bought the art of electronics and I'm not sure why it's referenced so often. It certainly is not for beginners. I graduated in Electrical Engineering but still didn't find it useful yet.
Interestingly, I was a physics + math major. Maybe the book struck a different nerve for me, than for a real engineer. Also, 40 years ago we had no access to computer simulation, and so we learned to design circuits the way physics students solve physics problems: Deriving equations by hand. Today, that method may be as obsolete for electronics as it is for physics. ;-) We prototyped by hand. Already by the time I was in grad school, the engineering students were heavily into Spice, and it was incorporated into their coursework.
Today, I don't design commercial electronics, but I design small circuits to support my own R&D work in developing measurement equipment, such as making front ends for weird optical detectors and such. Plus hobbies of course.
Transistor Transistor Logic followed by Z-80 Microcomputer Handbook, both published by Howard Sams and if I recall correctly, sold at Radio Shack. These books were clear enough that a teenager could grasp the concepts. Learning a relatively simple processor was a valuable foundation for learning microcontrollers and digital interfacing.
Turbo Pascal Manual, for versions 1 through 5. Those manuals were so clear and complete. They are probably the last manuals that I ever read cover to cover. That was kind of at the point where systems got too complex for any mere mortal to learn one completely.