I never read this when it came out, so here I am, like, 40 years later, catching up. [I was neck deep in quantum mechanics at the time.]
In light of all that's gone on since this book was written, it's a jumble of ideas, some old, some new, some borrowed, some hopelessly naive. Honestly, it barely has an organization, does NOT have a single point or group of related points, and is really all over the map.
McLuhan, among other things [about 11,432 of them, give or take], proposes the notions of "COLD" and "HOT" media. From the amount of satire about him that's out there [and, Yes, Bob Newhart, I'm talkin' to YOU], **NOBODY** but **NOBODY** but McLuhan himself could ever figure out what he meant by those terms [for example, TV was, by his definition, counter-intuitively a COLD medium - go figure].
Having said that, it's an interesting read, as much for historical purposes as for the actual value of its content. One interesting take-away is that McLuhan was considered a prophet, oracle, and genius at the time for having written this. So if this was what it took to attain that lofty pinnacle, the competition must've been fairly pedestrian. That insight alone was worth the read. :-)
If you haven't read it, I recommend it, along with the other great classics all good boys and girls should read, like THE PRINCE by Niccolo Machiavelli, THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS by Vance Packard, and THE RECKONING by John Kenneth Galbraith. You've got to check this one off your list.
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