Lakos used to work for Mentor Graphics, who makes EDA software. He was involved in building EDA software in C++, where they wanted to use C++ efficiently ('no more than 5% overhead over C code') and sort out how to build software on early workstations that really would take a long time to compile a large C++ application.
The book is quite a good read - it discusses a wide variety of topics, and Lakos really did know his stuff. He really comes from a background of having to get efficient code out of a C++ compiler, as well as how to set up a C++ program so it is maintainable and compiles and links reasonably quickly.
I think that Lakos has a lot of insight, and I would recommend that you read it. However, it is 'trad' C++ from a time before features like templates were widely available. My copy is not for sale ;^)
