Really, what makes you think you can learn the relative merits of C++ from a C++ book?
You said you wanted to learn what C++'s strengths and weaknesses are. A decent book should have all that info. But your way of research is better and bound to give you the _correct_ results.
I find the whole state of affairs with why certain languages are more popular very depressing:-/
Good or bad, there always has been, still is and always will be something more popular than the others. It might not always be the best ( *cough* Windows *cough* ) but the majority uses it and many ppl develop apps for it. In the programming world it happens to be one language. It either is C or C++ or Pascal or Delphi or Fortran or Lisp or Prolog or Python or whatever other language you can think of.
if you think Java was one iota original when released, think again
Ever heard of "good artists copy; great artists steal..."? But the opposite doesn't always work ("the ones that copy are good artists and the ones that steal are great artists"). I don't think C# is better than Java. Specifically I think only a few M$ products are worth acquiring; but those few ones really ARE worth acquiring. But it's just that they're only a few.
if you think Java was one iota original when released, think again
If you have a server that runs Win2k or Win2k3 or any other Windows then I feel sorry for you
The way you feel programming languages, that way I feel for OSs
