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by tgb 3122 days ago
I love Aaronson's book but it's not "gentle-for-newbies". Not because it's not gentle! It just explicitly skips over a lot of the material. You're expected to already know about quantum computing since he doesn't feel he can add to existing authors on the subject. Instead, it's really a survey of quantum complexity theory, with some sampling of background material where the author felt he had something new to say.
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What's a good book for Quantum Computing? When I took Aaronson's class last semester I got so wrecked by everything, and it just felt like everything was so conflicting from many different resources
I learned from a coursera course some number of years ago. It was actually quite good. (This should also give you the correct impression that I am not an expert here and you should take my suggestions with a grain of salt.) I think it was this one: https://www.edx.org/course/quantum-mechanics-quantum-computa... (Taught by Aaronson's advisor.)
To add to the answer already given, keep in mind that it depends on what you want to learn.

Theory from the point of view of physics (as in, less focus on algorithms, but some focus on building hardware): see Preskill's notes or Chuang&Nielsen's book.

I would suggest quickly skimming them once before trying to read them cover to cover.

And some lighter online introductions might help as a first step.

You definitely will need very good knowledge of college level linear algebra (linear operators, basis, diagonalization, eigenvalues).