To provide an answer to the question...
If you have no prior experience and want to learn this stuff. I would recommend the genuine Arduino Starter Kit. Then treat it like a college course and work through it, page by page, project by project. The projects are presented in 'model kit' style, put this here, connect that there which should suit your mechanical aptitude. The book does not try too hard to teach maths and electronics but by the end, you will have gained an understanding of basic electronic concepts and software structure.
The geunine Arduino kit looks like an exhorbitant price compared to the $20 'goody bag' starter kits from China. Try not to look at the bottom line too closely. The value is in having all the components needed to complete all the projects and a book which makes learning electronics appear child's play - It is not easy to make a complex subject look simple. Sadly too may of the other 'get started' books I have looked at take a the more traditional approach to teaching, making it look difficult.
There may be other books and kits as good as Arduino's but I know the genuine kit works, so I recommend it.
Like a modern day version of the Tandy / Radio Shack Science Fair Project kits that inspired so many of us in the 70s.
