I read it from cover to cover. The magic must be in the drawings because the prose is excruciatingly dry. It is missing coverage of those little balconies and tiny patios common in many West coast apartment building high rises, as well as anything on welding symbols. Not a self-contained book if you do not know anything about construction, as I had to make sure I had read ahead in Allen & Iano to fully understand what Ching was saying. The place where this book is indispensable is in the completeness, variety, and perfection of the drawings. The situation is similar to that of studying human anatomy when you have a book with clear, color coded diagrams of all the parts and their systems; then when you see an actual photograph of kidney and its cross section you know what is what. This is because the plans for a building can be incomplete due to omissions, mistakes and artistic license, so it is nice to know what a section of a curtain wall or whatever is supposed to contain. Some of the text seemed almost verbatim from Allen & Iano, however the sections on plumbing and electrical, and HVAC systems were superior to the treatment in Allen & Iano and really summed things up nicely. The suggestions about info to request from vendors is also a handy time saver.