Some pointers:
1) Obviously before reading any organic textbook some general chemistry knowledge is required...I found "Chemistry - The central science: a broad perspective 2nd ed (Brown Murphy et. al)" to be awesome , it was prescribed in my undergraduate course and actually seems like a book that is not actually often used as the prescribed textbook but it's awesome , it's very comfortable to read and explains basic stuff very well getting straight the point. Make yourself comfortable with concepts regarding equilibrium, conjugate-acid vs. conjugate-base theory , know where concepts like pH, pKa, pKb are derived from.
2) The path most organic chemistry courses take is as follows:
i) Basic addition reactions to alkenes and alkynes
ii) THE most important part of any organic chemistry course is the chemistry of carbonyl compounds (this is where your acid base knowledge gained from the general chemistry text comes in handy in order to predict outcomes) and the carbonyl group is found either as a starting product, intermediate etc. in almost any multi-step synthesis.
iii) Thereafter naturally follows keto-enol carbonyl chemistry (some very important concepts are learned here and it's my favourite part of organic chemistry)
iv) After mastering the ideas behind carbonyl additions, substitutions, eliminations ect. you can learn the more nitty gritty stuff like oxidation/reduction of functional groups, protecting groups and whatever else you might require.
Organic chemistry by mcmurry is also another popular book.
In terms of the practical side of things, as mentioned, no book beats vogels practical organic chemistry book. Another very useful book that illustrates how to set-up glassware, finding the correct solvent and doing tlc plates with some cool experiments is a book called "Experimental Organic Chemistry - standard and microscale by (Hardwoord). Also not a very common book but very useful.
Then finally:
Master Organic Chemistry , this guy made an awesome site which in the past has helped me so much. Read an article on there each day.
Organic "kitchen chemistry" is a whole other ball game though :lol: , For DIY home based experiments the older the source of information you use the better tbh.
Hope this helps! Goodluck with your journey
twisted: ). It is certainly isn't light reading! But, it is clearly written and certainly comprehensive.
