I've had this book on my wishlist for over 2 months. It's one of those things where I wait and see if I can afford it later, and then later turns into 2 months later. Let me tell you that I feel ridiculously foolish for leaving this on my wishlist for more than the time it takes to ship. If your job is in any way related to software development, you need to read this book NOW.
Surprisingly I already knew a lot about what was in this volume, but in hindsight, it was an incomplete jigsaw puzzle with the pieces laying around everywhere. To complete the analogy this book gave me the picture, of the puzzle, so I knew how the pieces should look when they fit together. I will be reading this book a second time just to burn the concepts into my brain.
As far as the literary quality, it's not dry like some references, but it's not overly exciting. If you're accustomed to reading tech ref documents and white papers then any book, like this, is disneyland in comparison. The authors organized it well, and it delivers the information in a powerful way, with lots of diagrams and code specimens to illustrate the concepts.
I'm glad this book was recommended to me, but I get the feeling that most professionals in my industry have read this volume, so it's an important thing to read.