Interestingly, I was a physics + math major. Maybe the book struck a different nerve for me, than for a real engineer. Also, 40 years ago we had no access to computer simulation, and so we learned to design circuits the way physics students solve physics problems: Deriving equations by hand. Today, that method may be as obsolete for electronics as it is for physics. ;-) We prototyped by hand. Already by the time I was in grad school, the engineering students were heavily into Spice, and it was incorporated into their coursework.

Today, I don't design commercial electronics, but I design small circuits to support my own R&D work in developing measurement equipment, such as making front ends for weird optical detectors and such. Plus hobbies of course.