I'm calling this partially read because there were long sojourns into Win32 programming (and code samples - COM isn't overly verbose, we swear! Now check out this 3 page class) that I skipped over.

What remains is a large collection of genuinely entertaining anecdotes about Windows, the hoops the developers go through to make customers happy (they didn't ship XP Service Pack 2 for awhile because Deer Hunter 4 didn't work on it) and the crazy things that application developers do to try and make a buck (one CEO wanted the Internet Explorer error page to redirect to his product's site).

You also learn about why Windows is the why it is. Why do I have to click on Start to get to Shutdown? Why do apps behave so strangely when you hook up multiple monitors? etc etc

I would recommend this for anyone with a slight technical bent (enough to know what a driver is) who wants to hear a longtime Microsoft employee share entertaining insights on the ubiquitous OS.