Reviews for Database Design for Mere Mortals: A Hands-on Guide to Relational Database Design

1. Simple, straight forward and effective

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2010

   I love using this book for my database design module. I got tired of all the technical jargons thrown in the lecture but with the help of this book, it helped me get on track with database design. It simplifies things and makes sense of things. I like that it tells you to focus on the design and also guides you to be meticulous in your design to prevent you from making huge mistakes that will be annoying to trace when you're far along the design process. Thank God for this book, I would be depressed without it.

2. Justa a few pages are usefull

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2008

   If you don't have any idea of how to build a database, this book can clear things up and make you understand the basic concept of a database structure. But there's a lot of stuff just to fill up pages. Many information is repeated every now and again, so just a few pages are really useful. I'm pretty sure there's many tutorials in the web that can do the job this book did to me.
   
   A good review from another customer:
   "Attractive title, attractive cover, attractive writing style, but I haven't found the meat yet. This one holds the attractive prospect of not losing me in technical jargon, but talking to the human me. Marvellous intention. So far I've read fifty pages, and all I have understood is that I really ought to take care in designing my database. Well that's why I bought a book in the first place. I'm sure there are really valuable ideas in here, but I've given up waiting to hear them. Too much fluff, not enough stuff."

3. Superb, why did I only just find out abou this book.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2006

   This book has potentially saved me from a rather unsuccessful 2nd year at university. Having come out of the first year with a few misconceptions on database modeling, I was struggling to get a coursework to actually work.
   
   In stepped 'Database Design for Mere Mortals', it is clearly written explaining the concepts in a step by step method. The real talent of the author here is that he is able to take very complex ideas and processes and break them down into plain, simple, easy to understand English. In fact it has a certain 'having a chat about it with your mates' feel.
   
   To summarise, it's simple, concise and extremely factual. You will be a DB wiz before you know it.
   
   Why my Uni didn't put this on the reading list I will never know!
   

4. Must buy

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12st, 2004

   I have never written a review before but this book deserves one because there are very few books, that actually achieve what it sets out to do. After buying more than 5 different design books, this is the only book that taught me very quickly how to design a sound database without all the jargon and complicated information sometimes contained in the other books. If you read this book from cover to cover you will learn to design a database correctly what more could you ask for. The only thing I think should have been included is a cd showing what the exercises look like in a real database, so you can see the design taking shape. Otherwise nothing else bad to say.

5. This is a brilliant book. It's that simple.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2001

   This book is brilliant. It's clearly written, has loads of information and is the ideal primer for anyone starting to study relational databases. There is no waffle about Normal Forms and BCF, just simple common sense to put you on the right path.