[nappy-doo]

This book was pivotal for me.

In grad school, my advisor recommended this book, saying, "it will be right up your alley." I bought the second edition, and it was. It is truly a graduate level course in circuit design. I started reading this book (2nd edition) front-to-back, and when I finished it, I started again. It helped me innumerable times when I quit grad school and entered industry.

When the third edition came out, I was at Google in Cambridge, and Horowitz came to talk. I had bought a counterfeit copy from Amazon (by accident), and while he didn't sign it then, he did sign it later (when I got a real copy).

Personally, I think it's worth owning both the second and third editions of this book. It is truly one of the best books about electrical engineering out there.

[dekhn]

The Horowitz talk at Google is excellent. He's been working on radio hardware and SETI for a long time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sImBlq542TQ

[wildzzz]

2nd edition is the best one. Mine is falling apart at the spine but I love it

[lagrange77]

Why (better than the most recent 3rd)?

[GeorgeTirebiter]

Yes, the 2nd edition (silver cover) is the best. The 'meat' in the 2nd edition, at least it seemed to me more practical stuff. The 'bad circuits' alone is awesome.

OTOH, the "X Chapters" of the 3rd edition is one of those analog-guru secret handshake books where The Masters take the Apprentice deep into the bowels of kick-butt analog engineering. Where simplification are eschewed for the Real Answers. https://x.artofelectronics.net/

[kragen]

thanks for the tips! i had assumed the 3rd edition was better at least in the eyes of the authors

[CamperBob2]

The 3rd edition is better. It's not even close. I have no idea where these posters are coming from.

[Rediscover]

2nd ed, chap 12, Construction Techniques, is missing from the third ed. Or I'm blind, but I don't see it here.

[Waterluvian]

I’m curious about the counterfeit thing. Did he identify that fact somehow and decline to sign it? Was there some sort of authenticity check built into the books?

[kadoban]

Amazon sells a bunch of counterfeit books. They're usually trivial to recognize by the shitty paper and printing. May not be obvious to many buyers, but the author of the book would typically be extremely familiar with what the official prints look and feel like.

[justin66]

https://artofelectronics.net/the-book/counterfeit-editions/

[tvb12]

Hmm. My hardcover copy has a mangled end-page, as seen in the last example on that page. Everything else looks pretty good, though, and my order history from 2017(!) says it was sold by Amazon Services LLC. I got it for about $59, which is the lowest price recorded on camelcamelcamel. I wasn't aware I'd bought it right at the dip. Today it's $111, which would have been brutal at the time.

I can't really say I've gotten my money's worth, but there's still time. I still want to learn more electronics, but I was left wondering "what's next?" at the end of my Physics BA classes and I haven't stumbled onto the answer yet.

[justin66]

A high quality book that can serve as a reference has value even if you haven’t worked your way through the whole thing.

[zerr]

As the author claims on his website, if the price is affordable then it is counterfeit. I hope the author understands that such affordable "editions" make the book accessible and popular outside the First World.

[squarefoot]

I'm not sure about the 3rd Ed, but the 2nd Ed had a much cheaper edition in a red soft cover and slightly smaller size, presumably cheaper recycled paper and no bells and whistles. It was distributed in India and developing countries and by all appearances it was totally legit, also accompanied by a label forbidding the sale in "western" world, where presumably they wanted to adjust prices to the higher income. Of course it was just a matter of time before it would land on Ebay sellers pages and elsewhere. There is where I got mine; items photos however showed the original so I was buying in good faith, although I should have recalled that old saying that if something seems too good to be true (had a very low price) it usually is. From what I can recall from my copy, there were no errors or omissions compared to the "official" one.

[justin66]

Why lie? The author wrote nothing of the sort.

[zerr]

Counterfeit Warning: December, 2015 — buyers have reported poor quality copies (confirmed as counterfeit) being sold online at prices too low to be creditable. ...

[justin66]

The thing that's objectionable about your comment As the author claims on his website, if the price is affordable then it is counterfeit is that you're stating the author has said his book is not affordable. That is a lie, the author wrote nothing of the sort. Maybe they believe it, but if they did, they certainly had the option of doing a cheap "international version" of the 3rd edition, as so many textbooks do. They have not chosen to do that.

You're entitled to your opinions about what a book should cost, but facts are facts, and the author did not write what you said they wrote.

[zerr]

> the author has said his book is not affordable

Yes, I combined the author's warning with the book's price.