Golly, this book is a brain-burner, but it was the first time I really understood semiconductors. And I include the Electronics subject I did at university in that.

This textbook starts from the basics of passive components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and by chapter 3 transistors have been covered. From there it's on to signal processing, amplification, rectification, and, inevitably digital circuits (which are, to me, less interesting).

A critical thing I noticed is that the stereotypical rookie-advanced circuit, the astable multivibrator, isn't in this book at all. There's a digital implementation with chained flip-flops, but the version with two transistors criss-crossed is nowhere to be seen. This comforts me, because the multivibrator just isn't as important in the real world as everyone makes out, and it's actually super-hard to understand.

Because it's a textbook, it has broad coverage of so many topics and it doesn't always delve into every corner of electronics. Its intent is to get you up to speed with circuit design, but it'll take a few rereadings before I think I'll get even close to that.

The dry humour of the authors is noted and appreciated. I may post some choice quotations here in the future.