I used this book in a course by the same name and it was a helpful source to read. It gives good explanations that sometimes are a little too short. I still use this book and it is a great place to jump off from when trying to understand a topic. One problem is that somtimes it gets too much into the biochemical steps and falls away from the concepts of the pathway. But all in all, it is a helpful book if this is your field or if you want to start and understand bacteria from a entire bacteria level and not just one gene at a time. The parts on genetics and genetic regulation of systems (focusing on transcriptional regulation) are also great. It is due for an update though.