Dictionaries and encyclopedias are meant to be dipped into for easy reference, not read front to back. Fred Halliday's Shocked and Awed can be used both ways. As a reference book, it's handy to have around when you're reading the morning paper or a magazine. It beats shouting, "Martha, what is a rubberhose cryptanalysis again?"
The disadvantage of using Shocked and Awed only when it's needed, however, is that a term such as "Whopper" will probably not show up in the paper in its post-9/11 context. The book's subtitle is How the War on Terror and Jihad Have Changed the English Language and to read it whole is to be truly shocked at how phrases have been used, misused and abused by politicians, soldiers, academics and journalists.
Whopper is the name given to a US marine who, wanting to "get some", shot two unarmed teenage camel-herders. The marine is a "baby killer", a phrase with the same initials as Burger King, where the Whopper hamburger is found. A rubberhose cryptanalysis is a euphemism for extraction of secrets by using a rubber hose on the soles of the feet. Shocked and Awed is a necessary book, but one which many will wish we didn't need at all.