This book is a very easy-to-read and engaging introduction to a complex subject: Linguistics. I chose it because I am interested in the subject, and I have used it as a teacher's aid and more or less textbook for a linguistics-related class I taught. It presents a very good overview of the subject. Admittedly, it is selective on which branches of linguistic that it explores in the later chapters, but this is so that it may give a fuller treatment to those selected, which the author considers the most important or most likely to attract the reader. It also has good references and a full bibliography for those who wish to dig deeper into the subject. In general, a great jumping-off point. Highly recommended.