This is my quest: I want to learn "in depth" about how computers work. I want to learn them so well that I could build one from scratch if I needed to. Even out of mechanical-only parts: Like a "Babbage Engine" for example. Of course, I want to be able to build a modern computer from manufactured parts too: that is practical. The point is that I want to learn computer science via a different route than the way that it is traditionally taught in schools, where they mostly give a VAGUE overview of the computer, and then focus on coding, before they move on to how computers are constructed or invented. At the start of my "quest" I read Danny Hill's book "The Pattern On The Stone". The book started with "logic gates" and gave a CONCRETE description of how one could make a simple machine out of tinker-toys using nothing but "AND", "OR", and "NOT" logic-gates. At first, I was in love with the book, but unfortunately it abruptly jumped from there to vaguely talk about finite-state machines and then programmable computers. I want something more in depth. Please, could someone give me some advice? Are there some really great textbooks and/or DIY kits that could send me in the right direction? I expect that I will have to learn machine-code and operating-systems too in order to complete my quest. But the point is that I want to learn things in a certain order that doesn't require me to "assume" things that I don't know. I don't mind if the textbooks are full of math. I would prefer that to it being "watered-down". (I've already studied Linear Algebra, and I also intend to study Discrete Mathematics too.) Perhaps a good place to start would be something written by people like Alan Turing or Charles Babbage? Or is that too ambitious?