The Art of Electronics
by Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill
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Book Reviews of The Art of Electronics
Book Review: 17 years going and still viable, that says it all
Summary: 5 Stars
From the early 1980s, I've read both the first and second editions over 3 times and the heuristics they use remain second to none, years later. This is THE book of Electronics for non-engineers.
With technology moving at a logarithmic phase, its a tribute to their presentation that AoE continues to be sold without a recent update and their keen circuit sense shows that many of the technologies they focused on remain available today.
Since the second edition cheap computer circuit simulators, I use Electronics Workbench but many are available, can help clarify areas were H&H may leap and bound when discussing circuits [ explanations can still be found by cross references the book via the index.] Design software makes breadboarding less necessary for testing concepts. Choice of software depends on cost and the sophistication of your design.
This book is not for the casual tinkerer, kit assembler, or an extended version of '1001 electronic circuits.' It turns astute readers into circuit designers, not everyone is cut out for that field. Its been a while since I read Steve Ciarcia in Byte, thought of Heathkit, saw an issue of Radio or Popular Electronics, but DigiKey remains a key supplier, Radio Shack remains the 'quick fix' and H&H lives on.
I rarely have time to build circuits on custom PC boards these days, but AoE has given me a cognitive lifetime warranty on all devices I've opened that screwed tightly shut had a sticker that said " ... VOID IF REMOVED."
For the next edition, could authors PLEASE beg the publishers to print the book on acid free paper? My copy is terribly jaundiced.
Book Review: Not for learning electronics for the first time.
Summary: 1 Stars
I was so dissappointed with this book. I love buying books and when I was a physics major I couldn't resist buying this book which promised to cover entire electronics in an "intuitive" easy to understand manner. The moment I tried to read it however, I was turned off by too brief little sections. This book might be a good summary if you already know the subject or if you are good at learning sparsely explained material. However this will make a terrible text book for people like me who like a more systhematic, detailed explanations. I was able to read and understand the most complicated books on electronics ( Tsividis' book on MOS transistor for example) a lot easier because they really explained things. I know this book is considered a classic, but somebody has to warn people like me from the mistake of buying this book. The biggest mistake you can make in buying a book is because it's a "classic". I think the star ratings should be taken as an indication of how much the person who read the book enjoyed it, and should give you an indication of how much you might enjoy ( or hate!) a book. So instead of "How do you rate this book", maybe Amazon.com should ask "How did you enjoy or like this book." Now that I know electronics, I might like this book more if I reread it, but I have a lot better advanced books for that purpose. For an initial introduction to electronics, luckily I found Sedra & Smith's "Microelectronic Circuits" which made it all comprehensible. (Ironically that book is rated a lot worse than this one!)Book Review: An older book that still retains its value
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was first published in 1989, and although it definitely is showing its age in the later chapters on microprocessors, microcomputers, and low-power design, in that great strides have been made in these areas over the last 17 years, it is still a worthwhile purchase. It has timeless value in the first seven chapters that focus on transistors, diodes, FET, opamps, active filters and oscillators, voltage regulators and power circuits, and low-noise techniques. Some people have complained about the price, but this book manages to retain its conversational style and still explain the concepts of electronic design much better than textbooks with twice its price tag. If you are an undergraduate electrical engineering student, there probably is no subject that is quite so confusing as designing circuits with transistors and diodes given a certain set of specifications. When I was an undergrad, it seemed like only the children of TV repairmen and the most exceptional students grasped the concept as it was presented in class and in the text we had. This book made matters crystal clear through a series of well-presented straight forward examples in which nothing is left to the imagination.
Even in the later chapters involving digital design and microprocessors, the material may be dated, but the basics are still valid and the material is still worth reading. Might I also recommend "The Art of Electronics Student Manual with Exercises". It is very useful for practicing what is taught in this textbook.
Book Review: The best overall electronics book there is
Summary: 5 Stars
I recommend this book to everyone I know interested in electronics regardless of their knowledge and skill level. This book is full of useful circuits that are simple and work great. Just the other day I needed an absolute value circuit and a peak value circuit, I looked in the index, and there they were. If you know absolutely nothing at all about electronics this book might move a little fast for you, but if you like to learn, and like to think, and want a fantastic electronics reference book, this is the book. I first learned of this book when I took an electronics class; the instructor had written his own book, which we had to buy, but he told us this book was less expensive and better! If you like electronics then buy this book and you will probably use it almost daily. I read some of the criticisms on this book and some said that the book didn't go into enough detail on its circuits - I disagree; the circuits are all explained well but the explanations are short and to the point to enable the authors to include more circuits in the book (it's already as big as most phone books). If you don't understand a circuit all you need to do is go back and read the chapters on resistors, diodes, capacitors, transistors. etc., and then look at the circuit again. Everyone I know that deals with electronics from the basic hobbyist to the top analog engineer has a (worn out) copy of this book on their shelf.Book Review: Good general reference, begs for another edition.
Summary: 5 Stars
Encyclopedic in scope, this is a good reference for many electrical engineering topics, including aspects of both analog and digital design. It has a lot of pictures and examples, and often fills in the gaps of theory to tell how designs are typically made. Even after getting an electrical engineering degree, I keep a copy of the Art of Electronics on my shelf for quick refreshers on long-forgotten (or never-learned) topics. There are usually comprehensive introductions to general topics followed by between a few paragraphs and a few pages on more specific topics and an example circuit or two.
I find that the text is very well balanced. There is usually just enough information to get the point across: no more, no less. For a thorough theoretical treatment of electronics design, you'll have to look elsewhere, but to just understand common topics, H&H is very good.
On another note, this book hasn't been updated since 1989, and the information on microcomputers and digital logic is reflective of that. This chapter begs for a new edition including FPGAs, VHDL, etc., which just didn't exist in 1989, so don't buy it thinking it will help you in implementing your college digital design project. You may want to buy it, though, when you're trying to figure out why your design that worked in simulation doesn't work in hardware (yes, even digital logic is built from analog components).