Unless you marry into the British Royal family, it is virtually impossible to ever personally view all the paintings featured in this book (I believe Windsor Castle displays only one painting per year). This book is the next best thing. How else can one marvel at the equisite design, detail and color presented in these Mughal paintings? While the text is written in the usual art history academia mumbo jumbo (meaning dry dry dry), the pictures speak for themselves. One can easily find a sentence here or a paragraph there that will give added insight to the paintings. But the text isn't required to appreciate the magnificance of these art pieces from Shah Jahan's era.