Yes, I am being very critical, but for good reason. Most books on electronics are really bad. With rare exceptions, the easy lessons are too easy and the hard lessons are too hard. They feed you a few fundamentals and leap directly into Star Wars without any of the vast intermediate knowledge and projects you had in mind.
I am planning a series of short publications which, for the first known time in electronics, stays on topic at every level. Do check back, and thanks for your interest.