You do know that there is a companion hands-on lab book for AofE, right? http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Student-Manual-Exercis...

The ARRL handbook is also a very practical intro text, but quite broad.

[edit] Oh, another decent book that's aimed at technician level students: Electronic Principles by Malvino. I've got an older edition from my high school days, and it's a real easy read with lots of explanation of transistor circuits. http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Principles-Albert-Malvino/d...