Very much a reference book, and focuses more on the what of measurement than the actual how to do it yourself. In the age of search engines I was struggling with what use this book really is, but I have come to agree with the other review that this would make for a very geeky and fun bathroom reader.

High-brow littlest room browsing, here, as the person who wants to be edified while on the toilet can flick through a nice few terms and definitions that may or may not have anything to do with their job or interests. Here then is the saros, a period during which the eclipse pattern we see from Earth resets and starts over. Here is global confusion when we learn the chain, if spoken of on Cyprus, is nothing like 22 yards, as it's eight inches (or clearly two hands). Here then is the semi-trivial fact that the Plimsoll line may have six marks, for all the different seasons and kinds of water the ship is floating in.

Make no mistake, this is not a yearbook, or almanac or anything, even though it has the stylish high-quality look of a book that does come out in a fixed standard over the years (Schott's, Worst Case, Haynes etc). It won't tell you any current demographic data – but it will make sure you know what demography covers as a term. It gathers everything in subjects, and ignores alphabetical order, so things such as all the different flow rate units are together. It is dry and academic, and quite scientific, and all this proves it to be a potential reference book for those people who don't trust the Internet for such things, or as I say something for the esteemed brain to dip into and out of. Proof-reading for a book downloaded a week before launch was very lax, so I hope had been completed to make this what it should be – a four star if niche volume.

I did not like this book. I stopped reading it about halfway through because it reads like a dictionary of units, in terms of tone and writing style. The tone is definitely not conversational, the language is stilted and there is no humor or warmth. There is limited explanation and basically I would need lots of additional background in areas I am not familiar with. To me the book is just page after page of dictionary entries of units. Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Ivy Press for the advance reader copy.