There may be better electronics books out there, but one that I've found very helpful is Electronic Components -- A complete Reference for Project Builders by Delton T. Horn (1992). It explains enough of the theory of how the various components work to get a reasonable intuition, but it also describes the various kinds of those components that are available and why one might be better than another for some particular application.

https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Components-Complete-Refere...