Rating  - Yes, but a bit analytical
As a professional designer, I tend to approach books that purport to reveal the secrets of good design with skepticism. Although I can't say that I disagree with most of what the book says, the author's attempt to explain principles of good design relies too heavily on analytical reasoning.
Good design stems as much from intuition and talent as it does from a methodical analysis of the problem. The most talented designers, writers, composers and artists rarely exhibit analytical personalities; they rely instead on an intuitive understanding of how to solve the problem -- in other words natural inborn talent combined with many years of practice and experience.
This is mostly a book that will appeal to builders and engineers who dream of being architects, or programmers who secretly want to design user interfaces. Unfortunately, the book doesn't deliver any insight into the most important thing -- talent.
Rating  - A Blueprint for Utopia
As opposed to people who have written more detailed reviews of this book, I'm not an architect, but a software engineer. Nevertheless, I found this book fascinating. Its form lends itself very well to casual reading, as each of the patterns is only a few pages long.
Some of the patterns give great explanations of why some of the structures I live in every day don't work all that well (in Silicon Valley, you can find more or less every pattern in the book violated, some of them pervasively so). Other patterns exmplain why some of the structures *do* work. Yet other patterns are thought provoking, even though I don't agree with them (Would I want to have an outhouse instead of a bathroom and compost its products myself? I don't think so. Does Alexander have an outhouse for his own house?).
I recommend this book highly.
Rating - Guide to artists of buildings and rooms
There is a "voice" of history which speaks to all people in all times and it carries the tone of one who "understands". Here, in A Pattern Language, such a voice describes a catalog of things that we humans have done during our occupancy on Earth that have worked well and which help to explain who we are and how we and the planet fit together. For the photographer/artist this book is an outstanding guide to the viewing and understanding of regions, cities, villages, buildings and rooms, because it explains how these places can be made to "come alive". The book is full of invaluable clues to the landscapes of rooms and buildings that can help the artist in his/her exploration, interpretation and composition of pictures to be made of these places.
Rating - A must-read for all who live or work in buildings
This book changed how I looked at homes, workplaces, and public spaces, and more fundamentally, how I thought about my life in relation to the larger community. My new perspective led me to discover the cohousing movement, and to my current residence in an evolving ecovillage. Whether you're an architect, a big-city planner, or just looking to renovate your kitchen, this book is an invaluable guide and inspiration!
Rating - A Classic
This book is well-reviewed here, and I won't repeat the details of the many things recommending the work. It is, however, one of the 10 best books I've ever read, and serves as a political statement as well as it does as a manifesto of human-environmental theories. Our separationist, consumer-oriented, alienated culture would do well to consider its many premises and suggestions for human life.
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