A book I consider important

http://dump.udderweb.com/CODE.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319

The author, Petzold, has been mentioned on /prog/ before, but AFAIK only in the context of his MS Windows books.

This one is different, because it helped me understand the nature of information, how it is part of reality and was so even before people existed.  In that way, it helped me understand what functional programming is.  (I'm sure that there is more than one path to that place, but this is the one I took.)

Because I'm lazy and I don't want to waste my hard-earned NEET time reading a book that might be terrible, can someone write up a quick mini-review of this book and what it's about? Going by Amazon's description and reviews, it sounds like it might be incredibly dull or one of those stupid attempts to make something deep, man.