Another vote for The Art of Electronics which would have made life a lot easier when I was at college 50 years ago.?
The well thumbed books on the shelf include National Semis Linear Applications Handbook and their Intuitive IC Op Amps, and the applications notes section of Analog Devices Audio/Video Reference Manual.? Manufacturer's application notes themselves can be a good source of information even if some leave out the critical bits such as decoupling caps.
If you want to see how circuits (might) work before physically building them SPICE is a great tool.? I use LTSPICE which has schematic entry, test point probing and graph plotting; there are component libraries available from manufacturers if you want to move on from ideal opamps to real parts.?
Andy
