I purchased this book as an optional reading for my histology course. I did not use it as much as might be necessary for other courses but I was influenced by the fact that it is soft cover, small and lightweight making it easier to carry, and thus more likely to be read. I have used another histology book which was concise and very readable, this one is similar except that the images are in color and there are more diagrams to illustrate the histology in addition to microscopy images