Chad,
I don’t have compelling recommendations in this regard (you may be aware that Gujarait publishes a “more basic” version of his econometrics text: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Econometrics-Damodar-N-Gujarati/dp/0071276254/ I own a 4th edition but the reason I can’t recommend it is, in my opinion, is mostly duplicative and roughly at the same level).
(I am a fan of Introductory Econometrics http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Econometrics-Using-Simulation-Microsoft/dp/0521843197
... having used some of their examples in webinars ... this book helped me to grasp OLS like no other via the hands-on exercises ... however, I think the book requires a TIME INVESTMENT so caveat attached…)
That leaves my other favorite resource: the CFA curriculum. The CFA textbooks do not cover everything (it is not quite a 1:1 correspondence with econometrics), but where they do, i think they are the best.
... I am unsure about their availability to non-CFA, but see:
http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/university/index.html
and this book may be helpful: http://www.cfapubs.org/toc/inv/2007/2007/2
the other “strategy” is to go slow with Gujarati and try to sweat his problems (Q&A) one at a time…
hope this helps, David
