As usual with all my purchases from OverStock, the book came immediately iin great condition. I heard about this book from a class I am currently taking on environmental science. If you want a visual summary of the book, National Geographic did a commentary on it. You can view the commentary on YouTube. The book contains lots of scientific terms and what not, but i've enjoyed reading it just for general knowledge and entertainment. It talks about the world before us, what we did to it while we are here, and what it would be like if we disappeared into thin air one day. It gives insight on how long certain cities would last without humans and if that city would ever be able to go back to the way it was before us. You wouldn't believe how much we've done to this world.