I have looked back and found a similar topic started by Admin but i figured its 2 and a half years old and there have been some really good books since then.
and why stop at books when there are videos that are really good.
I am talking of learning rescouses not sifi and the like.
Admins book link
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=212.0I'll start with 2.
A doco i really liked called "Rodneys Robot Revolution". Rodney Brooks, a MIT professor has to build a robot for the pentagon and it goes through the process and talks about hi view on the topic.
And a book, "Robotics Demystefied". It is a book about the basics and has some good practical exersises to help the learning process.