StratoscopeJun 2025

You must be thinking of The Forrest Mims Engineer's Notebook or his Engineer's Mini-Notebook or Getting Started in Electronics.

The Engineer's Notebook is still in print:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1878707035

If you download the free Kindle sample, it has some of the illustrations, but mostly just individual components.

This Reddit post has a couple of pages from Getting Started:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ECE/comments/ik1gw4/from_the_book_g...

The Internet Archive has the complete Mini-Notebook:

https://archive.org/details/Forrest_Mims-Engineers_Mini-Note...

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WaitWaitWhaDec 2022

All of Forrest M. Mims III books are a treasure trove of electric & electronics learning, in a very simple way.

For starters, get the "Getting Started in Electronics" , and any of his "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series.

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WaitWaitWhaMar 2021

Depending on the level of electronics background, I have great luck have people fall in love with the subject using Forrest M. Mims III authored books.

Specifically with the "Getting Started in Electronics" and his "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series.

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santixOct 2018

And for a list of applications what better than Forrest Mims' handwritten Engineer's mini notebook: https://archive.org/details/Forrest_Mims-engineers_mini-note...

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fuzzfactorApr 2018

There are a variety of project subject areas in the series of Engineer's Mini-Notebooks, and some of them are quite advanced:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22Engineer%27s%20Mini-...

It can really be most worthwhile to start with the introductory Engineer's Mini-Notebook volume, "Getting Started in Electronics" where everything is so simple. Once available at Radio Shack for $2.49:

https://www.scribd.com/document/103603952/Engineer-s-Mini-No...

Then work your way through the other Engineer's Mini-Notebooks of interest and you will be able to recognize all kinds of other resources that can be helpful to build on this foundation in similar ways.

Regardless of your objective you will need a foundation in analog circuits and here's a classic reference for schematics:

https://archive.org/details/howtoreadschemat00herr

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SoleilAbsoluMay 2026

I still have the Forrest Mims III Radio Shack "555 Engineer's Mini-Notebook" somewhere in my basement. And rumor has it that Sammy Hagar can't drive 555 because his car just isn't fast enough!

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