[patterns]

I recommend having a look at "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. The book offers a very good introduction about the basics of electricity with many helpful illustrations, written in a down-to-earth style. In case you are interested in electronics, you will find that the book covers many intermediate/advanced topics such as operational amplifiers with lots of practical examples.

[VBprogrammer]

I came here to recommend the same book. It's not an easy book though to read from cover to cover though. I found it useful to try to understand a completed circuit design (say for a solar controller or something else I was interested in) and when I ran into something I didn't understand I'd then open up that book and read areas that were relevant.

[patterns]

Yes, I had the same experience and I use it in the same way. It's a great book to have on your bookshelf as it covers a lot of topics and the chapters are, iirc, fairly self-contained; but I never read it from cover to cover.

[jpm_sd]

Yes, this is a good one! Wish I had it when I was an MIT undergrad.