The Art of Electronics

I originally bought The Art of Electronics as a gift for a friend who's into circuit design. After flipping through it before handing it over, I was so impressed that I immediately bought a second copy for myself. It's now one of my most-used reference books in the lab. ✅ Why I Recommend It: Comprehensive Coverage – This book dives deep into core electronics principles, from basic components to complex analog and digital circuits. Practical & Theoretical Balance – What makes it stand out is the blend of solid theoretical grounding with practical application. It’s not just textbook fluff—this is stuff you can really use. Clear Explanations – Concepts are explained clearly, with helpful diagrams and real-world examples. Great for Engineers, Hobbyists, and Students – Whether you're brushing up on fundamentals or designing a complex system, this book delivers. I've used it repeatedly as a go-to reference for both professional projects and personal builds. If you're serious about electronics, this is one of those books that truly belongs on your bench. ⚠️ Disclaimer: This review reflects my personal experience and is for informational purposes only. The Art of Electronics is a technical book intended for readers with some background in electronics. I do not assume any responsibility for how the information in the book is interpreted or applied. Always use proper safety practices and consult multiple sources when working with electrical systems. In short, this book is a classic for a reason. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to deepen their understanding of electronics or keep a reliable reference close at hand.

This book stays between a university textbook and something a hobbyist would get. It basically explains every major topic about electronics without delving too much into software. If you want to consider buying a book about electronics, this should be your first choice.

Amazing book. It has everything about electronic components and design. Very helpful. It is not so beginner friendly.

To me, there is no one more important book in my life than H&H. I certainly do not know of a better electronics text (and I like electronics texts). Further, I believe my career in engineering boils down to a few distinct pushes in that direction before it was in my blood (and therefore too late). One of the big ones was getting a copy of AoE 2nd Edition in school. So, I would have bought the 3rd edtion no matter what. Incredibly, the 3rd edition has expanded many of the things I loved about the 2nd edition. The section on low noise design is much better and much more useful and it was pretty great before. The digital stuff is obviously much more relevant (although it may not stay that way). The "circuits from the masters" sections and the case studies of specific circuit designs are fascinating and useful (although I do miss the hilarious "bad circuits" sections). Finally, and most importantly, you can tell that H&H themselves were active engineers in the world between the last edition and this one -- building circuits and solving problems and reading other works and being influenced by the work and scholarship and generally just continuing to rule. The dedication to Jim Williams showed that like me and all other analog nerds I know out there, they had been eagerly reading all his stuff. The section on microcontrollers exactly parallels some of the design ideas, biases, and gut feelings that I and other embedded engineers have taken the past fifteen years developing by plowing through all the exciting architecture and tool changes that have happened from EEPROM PICs to ARMs. Finally, the intellectual integrity, raw practicality, and HANDS-ON-ness of this book are unparalleled. If everybody were required to read this book before designing circuits, there would be a lot fewer crappy circuits out there. Oh, yeah. And it's fun, too.

Overall, this book is really great. It covers a wide range of topics. It presents some relevant theory and historical perspectives. And, it contains schematics of sample circuits and references part numbers of components currently in production. Keep in mind that the 3rd edition of this book was published in 2015 so there are definitely some more contemporary components out there but often they are still made by the same manufacturer. One of my favorite parts about owning this book though is that it has often been quicker, less frustrating, and more illuminating than doing a simple online search when I first sit down to design a circuit. Of course, this statement should be treated with a caveat: I am not a professional electrical engineer. I don't have any educational nor vocational experience in analog electronics, and I'm not designing insanely complicated circuits. Most of what I have learned comes from this book, online forums, and technical datasheets from manufacturers. Because of this, I would say it is an incredibly beginner friendly text for those designing circuits. It does contain math, uses technical vocabulary, and asks you to read a schematic/graph/table, but these are all well labeled, accurately defined, and clearly depicted. I haven't found myself lost because of a simple omission that the authors felt was too obvious to mention nor a poorly defined or ambiguous term. Needless to say, it sits happily on my workbench full of notes and a couple burn marks from my soldering iron.

I am a happy owner of the 2nd edition, and just received the third from Amazon the night before last. There is much to say about this book as I get further into it (yes I am reading it cover to cover). Things you will recognize from the first 2 editions: The enthusiasm for electronics comes through in the writing, the clean descriptions and supreme attention to detail in the quality of the schematics, images, and tables. As a practicing electrical engineer, I've had the full complement of the usual textbooks which are way more theory and less practical experience. However even today, this book (and it's predecessor) are the ones I reach for to answer a quick question. It's a fantastic tutorial and reference. I'd recommend this to anyone who already has an interest electronics and wants to learn more. It's a book you will keep around and use for a long time. I am so glad to see the 3rd edition. I recommend reading the included prefaces (from each of the 3 editions) it's a slice through 30 years or more of the history of electronics.

The information in "H & H" (The Art of Electronics) is well presented and covers a wide range of electronics topics with as much detail as can fit between the covers. Alas, despite the hefty size of the book, not everything can be covered in as much detail as one would like. There are also a number of errors that can confuse the reader upon close reading of the book. For example, the section on PLLs appeared to contain main-body text from the second edition, but the calculation summary table and schematic figure used different values from those in the text. Even so, the book helped me break through a mental block I had on the subject. The authors have a website in which known errata are corrected, so if your calculations or designs don't agree with the book's, you can check the website to see if you've found another error or you're losing your mind. The authors' conversational style never wavers from its intended audience - the technically-minded enthusiast, hobbyist, or engineer confused by other, more in-depth, but "math heavy" texts that do not provide the rapid insight that "H & H" does. I happily owned a first edition until it was destroyed by a flood in 2013. I recently purchased a used second edition and (what I thought was) a used third edition. The third edition is apparently being counterfeited and sold by many "Other Sellers". Beware! The authors' web site details the extent of the counterfeiting and how you can recognize it. Considering how much effort the authors put into writing such an informative book, and how useful it was to me, I felt compelled to return the counterfeit item and am now engaged in finding the genuine article. The "other seller" who sold it to me quickly refunded the purchase amount and apologized for the inconvenience. Hopefully he will return any remaining copies to his distributer with a stern note about this subject.

I worried when I ordered this that it might be a counterfeit. I was wary because several bloggers and YouTube channels had reviewed the problem with counterfeits of this book on Amazon. I didn't want to risk buying a used copy for this reason, so I held my breath and ordered a new copy at the full discounted price. This also gave me pause because this edition of the book came out in 2015, that made it five years old. I need not have worried. The text I received was reprinted in 2019 (14th printing), just one year ago. Errata had been corrected, and the binding was pristine. I am very pleased. In case you're not familiar, this text is considered the standard for a single semester course in modern electronics. It is full of practical circuits and advice that makes it an excellent reference. It discusses circuits in a way that is practical, not just mathematically rigorous. The only disappointing thing for me, a 65-year-old non-student and hobbyist, is that there is no appendix with solved exercises that I can check my work against. Most groups on the net are reluctant to publish the solutions because they think they're helping someone do their homework. A few folks have started posting solutions only to give up before they even get through chapter 1. Oh, well.