Most underrated book in electronics?

[Blofeld]

Post the book that is, in your opinion, the most underrated one in electronics.
(EDIT April 21, 06:38: I should have written "Name the title of the book". If you have a link to download it, please make absolutely definitely positively fucking sure that downloading it is legal.)

My vote goes to "ANALOG SEEKrets" by Leslie Green. You can download it for free, it is hosted here on the EEVblog:
http://www.eevblog.com/files/seekPDF.pdf
But if you wish, you can make a financial contribution to the author, the details are near the bottom of this page:
http://www.logbook.freeserve.co.uk/seekrets/index.html
It's not a book for the beginner, you need a good theoretical background in electronics. Then you can get a lot of practical tips from the book. Even though the author made the book freely available some years ago, it is still widely unknown (or so it appears, if you look at the ridiculously low number of Google hits).

[smjcuk]

ARRL handbook (yearly) is good and seems to get little love. Learned a lot from that.

[4cx10000]

RF Circuit Design By Christopher Bowick is a nice book for those working with rf, but if it is underrated is another question. 

[nanofrog]

As a general purpose source, I'd have to go with NEETS (US Navy Electricity and Electronics).

Covers a LOT of material, is designed for self-study, and it's free.   

[T3sl4co1l]

Well... clearly, the most underrated is likely the least rated book, no?  So for that reason I will suggest, Electronics Assembly Methods, Duarte and Duarte.  It's old (60s era), hardly useful or pertinent, and the only reason it comes to mind is because it was a random book that I looked at a lot, growing up.

So there you go, I challenge you to find a review of it online and disprove my dubious interpretation of your question.

Speaking of "underrated" things, there's the Mark Twain(?) quote,
"One of the most overrated pleasures in life is intercourse, and one of the most underrated is defecation."

Tim

[mtdoc]

I'll vote for the Jim Williams edited compilation "The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design". Not a general electronics text but a collection of essays and chapters by various analog masters - some on specific design topics and some more general interest.

A PDF of the book can be found online.

[Blofeld]

I'll vote for the Jim Williams edited compilation "The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design". Not a general electronics text but a collection of essays and chapters by various analog masters - some on specific design topics and some more general interest.

Thanks for mentioning this book, mtdoc. I think it's lesser known than the first book he edited - "Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science and Personalities".

But I'm afraid it doesn't qualify as "underrated" anymore: It's listed in the "Further Reading" of the new AoE. Kind of the ultimate accolade for a book.

[ivaylo]

"Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits" by Anant Agarwal  and Jeffrey Lang
Downloadable PDF roaming around... (Edit: taking out the actual link)
This is the base for https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu
Not sure why people never mention it, but if you are getting serious it is much better than the "... for inventors" nonsense and what not...

[switcher]

One particular book I've had most of my life is:-
Principles of Transistor Circuits - by S.W. Amos.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-Transistor-Circuits-Mike-James/dp/0750644273

It never seems to get a mention anywhere, so must count as underrated; yet it's remained in print for the best part of 60 years.

I have two copies; one dating from the mid-70s, another from the mid-90s. Excellent book.

[Blofeld]

One particular book I've had most of my life is:-
Principles of Transistor Circuits - by S.W. Amos.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-Transistor-Circuits-Mike-James/dp/0750644273

It never seems to get a mention anywhere, so must count as underrated; yet it's remained in print for the best part of 60 years.

I have two copies; one dating from the mid-70s, another from the mid-90s. Excellent book.

This one looks like a winner. Though it obviously did get some attention decades ago. The book by Green I posted above might still win in the category published-in-the-internet-age-but-never-fully-recognized.

[JacquesBBB]

I see a sort of contradiction in this quest, as
as soon as an underrated book is quoted here, he becomes much more known and thus
has the danger of being suddenly overrated with respect to its content.

My vote goes to "ANALOG SEEKrets" by Leslie Green. You can download it for free, it is hosted here on the EEVblog:
http://www.eevblog.com/files/seekPDF.pdf
But if you wish, you can make a financial contribution to the author, the details are near the bottom of this page:
http://www.logbook.freeserve.co.uk/seekrets/index.html

It's not a book for the beginner, you need a good theoretical background in electronics. Then you can get a lot of practical tips from the book. Even though the author made the book freely available some years ago, it is still widely unknown (or so it appears, if you look at the ridiculously low number of Google hits).

I have checked the chapter on "Capacitors" on this book which I did not know before.
The way it is written is awful.
All the beginning part is a logorrheic writing, without much structure, and desperately lacking some subdivisions in smaller sections with subtitles.

Figures are missing, and when they are present, legends are indigent. Sure, they may be some interesting tips in the further sections, but it is so badly written that  it really deserves to be  in the shade.

I am wondering  if it has not already jumped into the overrated category.

[ozwolf]

Geez, I had to look up "logorrheic" writing...

[Blofeld]

I see a sort of contradiction in this quest, as
as soon as an underrated book is quoted here, he becomes much more known and thus
has the danger of being suddenly overrated with respect to its content.

Good point. And if a book attracts Dave's attention and he does a video where is worshipping the book, everything can happen.

I have checked the chapter on "Capacitors" on this book which I did not know before.
The way it is written is awful.
All the beginning part is a logorrheic writing,

The start of the chapter on capacitors , called 6.1 Basics seems to be a bit strange - not much basics here, just ever more complicated equations. But if you survive until section 6.3 Capacitor Types, things get much better - looks like really valuable information.

without much structure, and desperately lacking some subdivisions in smaller sections with subtitles.

Figures are missing, and when they are present, legends are indigent. Sure, they may be some interesting tips in the further sections, but it is so badly written that  it really deserves to be  in the shade.

I am wondering  if it has not already jumped into the overrated category.

These are some very precise observations. It seems others made them too. There was a thread about the book from 2012, where Leslie Green participated. This is one thing he wrote:

"I did get an offer from some big publishing house before I published it myself but the tone of their offer sounded as though they were going to butcher it. I have dealt with quite a few editors in the past. Some have a light touch and some hack and slash. I am sure the presentation of the book would have been much better if done "professionally" but then it wouldn't have been quite so much mine."

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/free-pdf-500-page-book-on-analogue-design-secrets-worth-a-look/75/ (at the top of the page)

Maybe he is a bit eccentric. The book as it is, is like an uncut diamond. But you get it for free. In my opinion, it really should get out of the shade.

[Blofeld]

Well... clearly, the most underrated is likely the least rated book, no?  So for that reason I will suggest, Electronics Assembly Methods, Duarte and Duarte.  It's old (60s era), hardly useful or pertinent, and the only reason it comes to mind is because it was a random book that I looked at a lot, growing up.

So there you go, I challenge you to find a review of it online and disprove my dubious interpretation of your question.

Accepted the challenge and lost. It's hard enough to find a picture of the book, let alone a review or rating. Good thing is that it got me thinking about the very first book that got me interested. In fact it wasn't even a proper book, but spiral-bound pages from an electronics-lab for kids (Kosmos).

[T3sl4co1l]

As newbie books go, Forrest M. Mims III ranks highly; but his books I would say are fairly-rated, certainly not under-.

Tim

[monksod]

RG Keen's "PCB Layout For Musical Effects" has helped me tremendously getting my head around manually routing a schematic into a compact, orderly PCB layout - something which has befoggled me for a long time? I think it is rated highly inside the "DIY stompbox" community but maybe not so much outside...?