To truly appreciate The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst, you should probably be a designer – someone who can speak the language of aesthetics and art and feeling, etc. A writer might also appreciate the book, particularly for its many tips on using typography properly on the printed page. Since I am neither designer nor writer, I’m not exactly the book’s primary audience, and thus didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I had hoped.

Even so, I made it through half the book before I began to skim. The author is clearly a man who is madly in love with typography and its impact on the written word. A left-brained brute like me can, to a degree, enjoy a well-styled page of prose. Hopefully, reading this book will have helped me recognize some of the key features of good typography. Like so many critics, I know what I don’t like, so I’m glad that there are people who can use the principles in this book to create designs that I don’t “don’t like”.

Update: Be sure to read Eli's comment, which eloquently explains how I managed to read the first half of the book. :-)