This took me forever to get through. At least three months. As the author admits, TILs are a real bear to wrap your head around because they involve so many independent moving parts. Loeliger does a great job of giving a high-level and low-level explanation of the entire sequence of events, but I'd still be in awe of anyone who could simply read this book straight through and actually GROK how it all works together. Maybe if you work out some of it on paper as well?

But that's fine. This book will guide you through creating your own TIL (or Forth-like language). And if you do that, you'll get it. My own journey involved porting a Forth (JONESFORTH) from one flavor of x86 assembly language to another (AT&T style GAS to Intel style NASM).

If you have a Z80 processor lying around, this book contains a complete implementation (well, I assume it's complete), so you're good to go! Otherwise, you can use it as a guide and essentially "port" the Z80 code to whatever architecture you're using.

As an object, there is something strangely beautiful about a lot of old computer books. I think it's the typography. This one is a pleasing size, as well - it's a hardback, but of the smaller variety. And the airbrushed cover illustration is a really nice touch.