Learning from a book only works if you have the opportunity to implement what you have learned in practice. That's why you need an Azure subscription. To do this at no cost, you can use a free Azure trial from h t t p s ://a z u r e . m i c r o s o f t . c o m /e n - u s /f r e e /.
To understand parts of the book, you also need an installation of Visual Studio. You can use any edition of Visual Studio. To avoid unnecessary costs, I recommend using the free Visual Studio Community Edition from h t t p s ://w w w . v i s u a l s t u d i o . c o m /d o w n l o a d s /.