Comments on: Why I Don’t Write Book Reviews

By: m0j0

m0j0 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:42:51 +0000

I’ve been going through various parts of High Performance MySQL for a while now, but I’m not quite ready to review it. It’ll probably take me another month or so to be ready. So far, just to make a blanket statement, I love the book. However, there’s always *some* way to improve a book, and I think I’ve come up with an approach to doing a 3rd edition of that book that might be “the killer book”. The thought strikes me every time I look at that book, so I won’t forget it, and I’ll be sure to include it in the review. I’ve been reading it in Safari, but a dead-tree copy is always nice to have and speeds up the rate at which I can get through a book.

By: Xaprb

Xaprb — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:20:51 +0000

If you want to write a review, I would love your thoughts on my/our new book, High Performance MySQL 2nd Edition. I have only seen a couple of reviews so far and I’m honestly hoping more people will dig deep into it and say what is good and bad about it. I am keeping tabs on the reviews I see and if there is ever a 3rd edition, they’ll be considered seriously. I and/or the editor can send you a hardcopy or PDF if you want.

By: Carl T.

Carl T. — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:29:22 +0000

I bought Apress’ Beginning PHP and PostgreSQL 8 at OSCON – as you can tell from the title, I’m not strong on either technology.
Book reviews can be handy if you don’t know what you’re doing with a technolgy (language, software, etc.). Sometimes you learn a bunch of stuff from a book, put it into practice, and then someone tells you later, “Oh, that book is wrong; you should be doing it this way!”
There is probably a fine line between astroturfing, a badly researched book, and an outdated book (OK, it’s not a line, but a Voronoi Diagram vertex – bear with me). The short of it is that hearing an experienced programmer’s opinion on a book can sometimes be helpful. I never take one opinion as Gospel, even if it comes from the creator of the technology.
A penny for your thoughts, Mr. Experienced PHP and Postgresql Guy. Thanks!