Not only does this book weigh in at nearly 700 pages, they are dense pages of fairly dry text and detailed analysis - hence taking nearly 6 months to read. It's part-way between popular (social) science for a general audience and in-depth analysis for an academic audience. That's just about right for me, but this is not a book you can read casually or whizz through at a fast clip. If you're interested in the subject, I'd suggest starting with a gentler introduction and coming back to this book once you're at an intermediate level of knowledge.