Reference Books for Device, Apparatus and Electronics Design.

One wants to get started building a device - a mechanism, a gadget, or an apparatus. Where to start? One can learn from peers and mentors. One can read magazines like Make, Circuit Cellar and Elektor. But what are the best reference books?

Classics:
Horowitz and Hill - Art of Electronics - Long in 2nd edition. Long rumored 3rd edition.

Richardson and Smith - Experimental Techniques in Condensed Matter Physics. (okay so I have a bias *grin* knowing them)

Moore, Davis and Copeland - Building Scientific Apparatus - little bit tilted to chemistry, but excellent overall.

More modern: Pratt - Make: Electronics

More ancient: Brown - 507 Mechanical Movements (Dover)

Meet more modern peers and mentors at a Maker Festival? Or at a Hackerspace?

Or go back to the past like at the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments?