Rating: 
Summary: The Electronics Bible has playful practicality
Review: This has been on my reference shelf for over fifteen years, because it's immensely practical, but it's also a lot of fun.One of my favorite examples of the "playful practicality": In the discussion on power in resistors where the authors suggest you calculate the power lost in and temperature of a one foot, pure copper cable supplying New York City with 10 megawatts of power (or about 1 kilowatt a person). As you work through the equations, you realize that in 20 feet, the cable will have lost all ten megawatts (due to the resistance of the copper) and will reach a temperature of over 3500 kelvin (gaseous copper, anyone?). The practical angle is: the result is obviously preposterous. You'd really use multiple cables and supplies. What's also impressive about the book is they cover so much, ranging from basic microelectronics to building a signal convertor with the Motorola 68008 (with code supplied!).
Rating:
Summary: The Book to buy for Practical Electronics
Review: I have had my copy for 10+ years, and have referred to it more often than any other electronics book. The fact that the binding is falling apart and the cover is warped is a testament to how often I have used it. If I have a circuit to design, "Art of Electronics" is often my starting place. Describes the full range of electronics design with great coverage of transistors and op-amps. As opposed to most electronics texts, it relies on describing how the circuits work, without a lot of math. In other words, it is a practial book with losts of real-world circuits that every EE should have. For theory companions to this book buy Foundations of EE by Cogdell and Microelectronics by Sedra and Smith.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL survey of practical electronic applications!
Review: I took a peek at this book in a local bookstore and I was surprised with delight! Unlike most other electronics textbooks, this book provides a through and complete survey of modern electronics applications and their use. As others have indicated, this book emphases practical electronics over semiconductor theory -- something which should be done in most of our nation's undergraduate courses! This book covers everything, and I mean EVERYTHING: from basic passive components, to diode and transistor semiconductor devices, to introductory digital logic, to advanced applications! I highly recommend this book for those who want a good electronics tutorial and reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as it looks
Review: There are three reasons I gave this book a 1. 1) There is an error (and not just a typo) in the description of emitter followers. It says when one is powered by two 10Volt supplies, the output clipping will occur at -5 Volts. This didn't make any sense, so I checked it out with a simulator and a real circuit, and sure enough, there was NO clipping at -5 Volts but instead at -10 Volts, like it should. This isn't a typo, since there's an elaborate graph to explain what the clipping will look like on the scope. I don't mind typos, but incorrect statements like these made me doubt the worth of the rest of the book, and I stopped reading. 2) Too many things are described without any detail whatsoever, like RF circuits, for example. I know this is a cookbook, but more detailed explanations are needed than simply saying what the circuit does. 3) The bad circuits sections are a waste of space, since the authors don't describe what makes those circuits bad. How can I learn from mistakes if I don't even know why something is a mistake in the first place? Keeps those in mind when deciding on this book. The first one is usually enough for me to stop reading a book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: This is an excellent electronics reference. I would reccomend it to anyone as a balance of practical advice and theoretical background. Although I only have the first edition (whcih was only 20 pounds!) I have heard that this edition has useful additions on microprocessors.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: After looking through the reviews it's obvious that a number of people reduced their rating because they were looking for more detailed explanations of fundamental concepts. H&H addressed this in the accompanying Student Manual, which I recommend highly also. To fully appreciate this book, be sure to get the very entertaining Student Manual at the same time. The AofE is intended to complement the traditional theory oriented textbooks with a practical approach which is actually closer to the way most design is done. But it's not just a cookbook, by any means. Yes, it would be great if the authors would come up with a completely revised new edition. They've sold a lot of copies and I think they owe it to their readers.
Rating:
Summary: Good all around
Review: Not clear if it's good for beginners. One thing to keep in mind if you are, is to think and not learn passively. I recommend you order this book and see if it suits you, since the return policy is in place for precisely reasons like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Nicked for a flaw
Review: Art of Electronics is an extremely complete and detailed tome on the subject. It seems to have everything in terms of theory and practice you might wish to know about the subject, including the various pathologies of components. However, there is a glaring error which mars the book. This is not a book for a neophyte. The opening chapters promise to define things 'later' like the concept of ground (which it never does), and rigorously applying the rules they give fails to explain the circuits. It is not a rigorous book in the sense that not everything follows from the information they give, and you end up having to take much on faith. However, its other chapters are very good; it goes to higher abstraction layers than just the electronics, when for example they explain processors and assembly language. It is a heavy book, and they did not waste any space.
Rating:
Summary: It's a one book course and a very good one at it !
Review: If you already know the basics of electronics and you want to get into the 'real' stuff, this book is for you. It teaches you about general electronic components and circuits that everyone should know about, and furthermore it discusses real world applications in great detail. You will really get a feel for designing electronics circuits and how to tie everything together. I simply stopped going to class after having read the first few chapters of this book. I thought electronics wasn't all that fun, but Horowitz and Hill not only helped me pass the course, they inspired me to think about electronics and showed me it could be fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Good coverage, but a little weak on transistor techs.
Review: Overall this is a good book. I bought it in hopes of it having alot of transistor (BJT, MOSFET) stuff, but it didnt have a large amount. At least not enough for me. However, it has alot of coverage on opamps, power efficiency, high freq and other good stuff
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