What are some recommended books for beginners in Information Theory?

[Casco]

I do not know if this is the right place for this post, but if I am doing a mistake by putting it here, If it is so, please let me know where is the right place to put it.

So, I am learning Information Theory, this is first approach and I would like to know a few names of good books for beginners. Any suggestions??

Thanks

 

[reddvoid]

Modern digital and analog communication systems by BP Lathi has last 2 units dedicated to Information theory ...its a nice book
check it out .

 

[shdrums9]

I'm also taking a course on information theory and we're using Cover & Thomas's "Elements of Information Theory" 2nd edition. Although I am new to the subject, and so far have not studied the theory's physical 'implications' (or applications) to great length, the book does a very good job at introducing the concepts. It is not a physics book, and focuses more on the mathematical workings of info theory, but, then again, the whole theory stemmed from Shannon's paper "A mathematical theory of communication," so studying it as a mathematical/electrical engineering subject is probably the best route if you want to understand the theory's original intentions and implicit limitations.

 

[atyy]

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-333-statistical-mechanics-i-statistical-mechanics-of-particles-fall-2007/lecture-notes/ has a short section in lecture 6 that gives an intuitive derivation of the mutual information

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/Books.html is terrific and free.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

An Introduction to Information Theory
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486682102/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[marcusl]

Cover and Thomas and Shannon's paper are advanced and highly mathematical. MacKay's book is no slouch, either, and very long. Suggest you start with Pierce's book
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Information-Theory-Symbols-Signals/dp/0486240614/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331053348&sr=1-1
which is good for a beginner.