Hmm. My biggest reason for reading this book was simply because I like reading biographies and autobiographies. The second would be morbid curiosity...and the third, well, is a bit more personal and I shan't go into grand details. That being said, on a whole, the book isn't all that bad, but de Quincey's tendency to ramble on and completely and utterly stray from what he was trying to say does make reading it a bit difficult and boring at points. If you can handle difficult/tedious reading and the subject matter piques your curiosity, I say go for it. It is a truly interesting read but I don't find it as good as the vast majority of readers tend to think it is. It has its high points (no pun intended) and I think it fills the void of curiosity for those unexperienced with the subject matter, but I don't really see it as the definitive drug addiction book many people seem to think it is. You'll likely get a better reading experience (and perhaps even learning experience) out of books labeled Fiction that we all know have some basis in real experience on the part of the author. These real types of confessions simply focus way too much on the author and not enough on the experiences themselves, which, whether readily admitted or not, is what most people are reading them for (whatever their reasons may be).