I need basic electronics books  (diodes,transistors,current.. etc) as I am just starting out with electronics and want to have something to read over the holiday.

Any suggestions of good beginners' books?

The Art of Electronics:Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill

Often described as the Bible of Electronics.  Its fair to say that if you buy this one, you wont need another for a while!  

Contents:


Foundations


voltage and current; passive components; signals; complex analysis made simple. 

Transistors


an easy-to-use transistor model
extensive discussion of useful subcircuits, such as followers, switches, current sources, current mirrors, differential amplifiers, push-pull, cascode. 

Field Effect Transistors


JFETs and MOSFETs: types and properties; low-level and power applications; FET vs bipolar transistors; ESD.
how to design amplifiers, buffers, current sources, gain controls, and logic switches.
everything you wanted to know about analog switching -- feedthrough and crosstalk, bandwidth and speed, charge injection, nonlinearities, capacitance and on-resistance, latchup. 

Feedback and Operational Amplifiers


"golden rules" for simple design, followed by in-depth treatment of real op-amp properties.
circuit smorgasbord; design tradeoffs and cautions.
easy to understand discussion of single-supply op-amp design and op-amp frequency compensation.
special topics such as active rectifiers, logarithmic converters, peak detectors, dielectric absorption. 

Active Filters and Oscillators


simplified design of active filters, with tables and graphs.
design of constant-Q and constant-BW filters, switched-capacitor filters, zero-offset LPFs, single-control tunable notch.
oscillators: relaxation, VCO, RF VCO, quadrature, switched-capacitor, function generator, lookup table, state-variable, Wein bridge, LC, parasitic, quartz crystal, ovenized. 

Voltage Regulators and Power Circuits


discrete and integrated regulators, current sources and current sensing, crowbars, ground meccas.
power design: parallel operation of bipolar and MOSFET transistors, SOA, thermal design and heatsinking.
voltage references: bandgap/zener: stability and noise; integrated/discrete.
all about switching supplies: configurations, design, and examples.
flying-capacitor, high-voltage, low-power, and ultra stable power supplies.
full analysis of a commercial line-powered switcher. 

Precision Circuits and Low-Noise Techniques


an easy-to-use section on precision linear design.
a section on noise, shielding, and grounding.
a unique graphical method for streamlined low-noise amplifier analysis.
autonulling amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers, isolation amplifiers. 

Digital Electronics


combinational and sequential design with standard ICs, and with PLDs.
all you wanted to know about timing, logic races, runt pulses, clocking skew, and metastable states.
monostable multivibrators and their idiosyncrasies.
a collection of digital logic pathology, and what to do about it. 

Digital Meets Analog


an extensive discussion of interfacing between logic families, and between logic and the outside world.
a detailed discussion of A/D and D/A conversion techniques.
digital noise generation.
an easy-to-understand discussion of phase-locked loops, with design examples and applications.
optoelectronics: emitters, detectors, couplers, displays, fiber optics.
driving buses, capacitive loads, cables, and the outside world. 

Microcomputers


IBM PC and Intel family: assembly language, bus signals, interfacing (with many examples).
programmed I/O, interrupts, status registers, DMA.
RS-232 cables that really work.
serial ports, ASCII, and modems.
SCSI, IPI, GPIB, parallel ports.
local-area networks. 

Microprocessors


68000 family: actual design examples and discussion -- how to design them into instruments, and how to make them do what you want.
complete general-purpose instrument design, with programming.
peripheral LSI chips; serial and parallel ports; D/A and A/D converters.
memory: how to choose it, how to use it. 

Electronic Construction Techniques


prototyping methods.
printed-circuit and wire-wrap design, both manual and CAD.
instrument construction: motherboards, enclosures, controls, wiring, accessibility, cooling.
electrical and construction hints. 

High-Frequency and High-Speed Techniques


transistor high-frequency design made simple.
modular RF components -- amplifiers, mixers, hybrids, etc.
modulation and detection.
simplified design of high-speed switching circuits. 

Low-Power Design


extensive discussion of batteries, solar cells, and "signal-current" power sources.
micropower references and regulators.
low-power analog circuits -- discrete and integrated.
low-power digital circuits, microprocessors, and conversion techniques. 

Measurements and Signal Processing


what you can measure and how accurately, and what to do with the data.
bandwidth-narrowing methods made clear: signal averaging, multichannel scaling, lock-in amplifiers, and pulse-height analysis. 



It takes a bit of a commitment to read it all, but it is the sort of book that you can pick from.  Not to heavy on the maths.
