At first glance the title seems like a chicken and egg problem, but it's not about the mechanical aspect of being able to read and understanding the words, it's about how to parse and select books to see if they might be 'worth' reading, or if you need to read several books on the same topic. I originally found out about this book when it came up as a recommendation for people pursuring graduate studies or researchers. In some ways I feel the value of this particular book has diminished somewhat thanks to the internet, especially when looking for books at the beginner and intermediate level for any given topic. It's typically quite easy to search the web and find book lists or blog posts that suggest a solid set of books to start with for just about anything you can think of to search for. But if you are moving into advanced research, or looking for niche topics where such convienent lists may not exist or be hard to come by, that's when the ideas presented in this book come in handy.