I read David Cook's Robot building for beginners.
It was much more of an electronics book than a robot book IMO, since there was no mcu used.
That said, for me, having zero understanding of electronics, it was a good book for me.
I built the line following robot in that book, and then I moved on to the $50 robot here.
By the time I finished those two robots, I felt I had a solid enough understanding to move on.
Since than, what I have found is that on the main site, there are so many incredible tutorials, along with the member tutorials and great information on these forums, that I am able to do some things on my own.
Still need lots of help, and a ton to learn but that path was helpful.
Robotics really is broken out into 3 disciplines, electronics, programming, mechanics. As a software architect, programming was pretty sound for me. This is why I found David Cook's book to be good for me.
I think the key is to look at the 3 disciplines and figure out where you are weakest, and try to find a robot book geared more towards that discipline, if you cannot, there are tons of books on each individual discipline.