The Zombie Apocalypse Guide to 3D Printing is a basic book in many respects, but it is packed with practical details, and it’s the sort of book that will sit by my home lab setup so that I can reference it when I’m doing actual design and 3D printing. If you’re looking for a place to start with 3D printing, this would be a solid option with 98% infill.
Contraptions
Take some sensors, maybe some servomotors, and a microcontroller, write a quick program, and you're all set to do whatever it is you want to do.
The Pen Conceit
As a society this days, I think we're a bit conceited. Surrounded by and immersed in this matrix we have created, we are distanced from the systems with which we regularly interact, and inured or ignorant of the complexity beyond so many of the things that we take for granted. This is not only applicable to physical things and technologies - it applies equally well to social structures, institutions, governments, administrative systems, and so forth - but it is easiest to understand and perceive in the context of technologies. I definitely suffer from this conceit, wherein I start to think that I understand enough about so many different things that I should be able to reverse engineer or recreate just about any system I might encounter, at least on a theoretical level. Whenever I start to think that way, I give myself what I've taken to calling "The Pen Conceit Lecture."
IGC Publishing 