Art of Electronics is a difficult, but incredibly practical, book. Note that Art of Electronics is one of the most pirated books, and that buying it from Amazon.com has a high chance of being a pirated copy with a smudged ink, low-quality paper and other such problems.
Still, its a great resource and I highly recommend it. You'll likely need a 2nd beginner book to take you through the 1st and 2nd chapters more carefully and slowly. (Indeed: Art of Electronics is paired with a 2nd lab book full of practical lab-exercises to help you learn the concepts of the 1st chapter... and of course later chapters).
Art of Electronics is perhaps "minimum" reading. When you're a strong enough engineer to read that book, you're strong enough to solve any problem. Maybe not strong enough to solve a problem efficiently mind you, but you can pretty much solve any EE-problem with what's in that book.
But yes. Read Art of Electronics. Get stuck, buy an easier book, read that, and come back to Art of Electronics later. Its important to get stuck and see "where you need to go" before reaching back to beginner material. Its very important to see where you plan to go in the overall field, even if its beyond your level IMO.