lol. "Avoiding textbooks" is probably the worse advice imaginable. Now, I'm not saying go out and buy all of Pearson's catalog, but textbooks are the only books designed from the ground up to impart knowledge to a reader that meets the minimum standards described in the first few pages. Plus, the good ones describe the experiments used to develop whatever theory they're trying to impart to the reader.

I will agree there are lots of bad textbooks, but the best-in-class textbooks are better than any self-learning guide you could make up yourself (within categories).