MySQL Book Reviews

We'll review here those texts which are, or claim to be, about MySQL. We try to be current, but we do not always go out and buy the latest edition of every book, especially if we disliked the last edition. We try to be fair, but disclaim responsibility for any errors or omissions.

THE TOP MYSQL BOOKS
We power searched the amazon.com database for MySQL etc., deliberately excluding any publication date more than 4 years ago. The list is in order by rating and publication date.

• NEW!!
  High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, Replication, Load-balancing, and More
  Jeremy D. Zawodny and Derek J. Balling. O'Reilly & Associates, April 2004. 5 stars. (Formerly called Advanced MySQL)
  As users come to depend on MySQL, they find that they have to deal with issues of reliability, scalability, and performance--issues that are not well documented but are critical to a smoothly functioning site. This book is an insider's guide to these little understood topics. Read a sample chapter. See the author's site. Read Hillyer's review.
• NEW!!
  MySQL (TM): The Complete Reference
  Vikram Vaswani. McGraw-Hill, December 2003. 5 stars.
  
• The Definitive Guide To MySQL, Second Edition
  Michael Kofler. APress, October 2003. 5 stars.
  Great for people who want to learn by doing projects -- follow the instructions and you can have a MySQL app up by the end of the book. Not much on C/Java interfaces, more on PHP/Perl. It's a translation from German and sometimes the phrasing looks odd as a result. Download a sample chapter. Read the author's web page (in German). Read Hopp's review (in German). Read Massey's review. Read Williams's review of the first edition.
• MySQL Enterprise Solutions
  Alexander "Sasha" Pachev. John Wiley & Sons, February 2003. 5 stars.
  Written by Alexander Pachev, formerly a lead programmer of MySQL, this book provides corporate users with both advice for adopting MySQL and a complete guide to building enterprise-level database applications with MySQL. Read Smith's review. The book is also available via a PDF download.
• Mastering MySQL 4
  Ian Gilfillan. Sybex, December 2002. 5 stars.
  This book's advantage is that it's recent, and covers MySQL 4 (most books cover MySQL 3.23). Download a sample chapter. Read an article by the author about optimizing MySQL queries.
• MySQL Cookbook
  Paul DuBois. O'Reilly & Associates, November 2002. 4.71 stars.
  A more recent book by the author of "MySQL" (listed later). Download a sample chapter. Read Michel's review. Read Dyer's review.
• MySQL, Second Edition
  Paul DuBois. SAMS, January 2003. 4.66 stars.
  This fat book is definitely the best on the topic. The content includes some detailed stuff that you won't find in the MySQL downloadable documents. All of the following reviews are of the First Edition. Read the slashdot review. Read Ibbotson's review. Read Lewis's review. Read Kim's review. Read Colleen's review. Read Ko's review. Read Darshan's review. Read Lemos's review.
• MySQL Pocket Reference
  George Reese. O'Reilly & Associates, February 2003. 4.5 stars.
  Small (96-page) and cheap ($10).
• MySQL and Perl for the Web
  Paul DuBois. SAMS, August 2001. 4.37 stars.
  Since DuBois is the author of the most-recommended MySQL book (see above), we expected some quality. And we got it, but this is nowhere near as useful for the average person as DuBois's "MySQL" book. We think Perl interfacing is just too specialized, but perhaps Mr DuBois understands the target market better than we do. Read Lewis's review.
• MySQL: Visual QuickStart Guide
  Larry Ullman. Peachpit Press, August 2002. 4.2 stars.
  The author also wrote "PHP Advanced For The World Wide Web".
• MySQL: Building User Interfaces
  Matthew Stucky. SAMS, July 2001. 4.11 stars.
  Mostly for RAD developers. Download a sample chapter. Read Brockmeier's review.
• NEW!!
  Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development
  Michael K. Glass, Yann Le Scouarnec, Elizabeth Naramore, Gary Mailer, Jeremy Stolz, and Jason Gerner. John Wiley & Sons, March 2004. 4 stars.
  
• NEW!!
  MySQL Tutorial
  Luke Welling and Laura Thomson. SAMS November 2003. 4 stars.
  
• Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days
  Anthony Butcher. SAMS, December 2002, 2nd edition. 4 stars.
  The first edition (by Maslakowski) had too many typos (note: sloppy editing is never the author's fault, it's the publisher's). Includes CD-ROM. Read Internet Writing Journal's review of the first edition. Read a sample chapter.
• MySQL: Your visual blueprint for creating open source databases
  Michael Moncur. Visual, October 2002. 4 stars.
  Has a CD-ROM with an e-version of the book. View a list of Michael Moncur's many books. Read the table of contents.
• MySQL and JSP Web Applications: Data-Driven Programming Using Tomcat and MySQL
  James Turner. SAMS, March 2002. 3.5 stars.
  This is really a JSP book, not a MySQL book. Read the author's bio. Read some articles by the author.
• MySQL Bible with CDROM
  Steve Suehring. John Wiley & Sons, June 15, 2002. 3.4 stars.
  Read an article by the author about installing MySQL.
• Core MySQL
  Leon Atkinson. Prentice Hall, December 2001. 3.37 stars.
  The author wrote an earlier book titled Core PHP Programming. Visit the author's web page. Download a sample chapter.
• Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 24 Hours
  Julie Meloni. SAMS, April 2002. 3.33 stars.
  Read the table of contents. Meloni's earlier book was PHP Fast And Easy Web Development which is a popular PHP reference. Meloni has also written a book called Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours.
• Beginning Databases with MySQL
  Neil Matthew and Richard Stones. Wrox Press, February 2002. 3.28 stars.
  Indeed a beginner's book. Some passages are copied word-for-word from the authors' earlier book Beginning Databases with PostgreSQL. Matthew and Stones have also been involved with another book: Professional Linux Programming. Read Nagle's review.
• Managing and Using MySQL (2nd Edition)
  Randy Jay Yarger, George Reese and Tim King. O'Reilly & Associates, April 2002. 3.16 stars.
  Read a sample chapter. The "first edition" was actually a 1999 book with a slightly different theme: MySQL and mSQL. While we found that a good primer, we wondered if there is a target audience who would appreciate all of the material -- we skipped the Python chapter and the Perl reference section, and we doubt that mSQL deserves so much attention. Also we found that some of the tips (for example the suggestion that "the best kind of primary key is one that has absolutely no meaning") are somewhat controversial. So peruse, but selectively. For comments on the first edition, read Weeks's review. Read Wheeler's review. Read Zinkann's review. Another reviewer (Ginzo) said "My biggest wish for the next edition is that the authors either narrow the focus of the book, or expand the contents of the first edition to match their vision. " ... Well, they seem to have done so.
• MySQL/PHP Database Applications, 2nd Edition
  Jay Greenspan, Brad Bulger and David Wall. John Wiley & Sons, October 2003. 3 stars.
  Our first impression is that this book would be a poor introduction to either MySQL or PHP (it assumes too much reader understanding); however, it has some mid-size examples which can be used by people who are ready to put their site into action. Reportedly some samples contain errors. Read an article by Greenspan.
• Linux Database Bible
  Michele Petrovsky, Stephen Wysham, Mojo Nichols and Fred Butzen,. John Wiley & Sons, September 1, 2001. 2.5 stars.
  This book is a more general survey of SQL database use on Linux. It includes an SQL primer and discusses three DBMSs: PostgreSQL, Oracle8, and MySQL.
• JSP, Servlets And MySQL
  Dave Harms. John Wiley & Sons, April 2001. 2.41 stars.
  The author is a Winnipeg programmer who works for Clarion Magazine. Read Crettaz's review.
• MySQL and PHP From Scratch
  Wade Maxfield. Que, November 2000. 1.6 stars.
  Mostly about installation, and too too little about how MySQL works. Read an article by the author.
• MySQL Weekend Crash Course
  Jay Greenspan. John Wiley & Sons, March 2002. No rating.
  Read the table of contents.

SECONDARY MYSQL BOOKS
If the title contains the words "PHP and MySQL" or "Apache and MySQL" etc. -- i.e. MySQL isn't mentioned first -- then we consider it a PHP/etc. book first, and secondarily a MySQL book.

• PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
  Larry Ullman. Peachpit Press, May 2003. 4.75 stars.
  
• PHP MySQL Website Programming
  Lea et al. 4.5 stars. July 2003. (Apress)
  
• PHP/MySQL Programming For The Absolute Beginner
  Harris. 4.5 stars. June 2003. (Learning Express)
  
• Web Database Applications With PHP & MySQL. Williams + Lane. 4.5 stars. March 2002. (O'Reilly). Read a sample chapter. Read Whitinger's review. Read Lemos's review. Read Hughes's review.
• PHP and MySQL Web Development. Second Edition. Welling and Thomson. 4.5 stars. February 2003. (Sams) Includes CD-ROM. Focus is on commercial considerations. Popular. The authors work for a web design company in Melbourne. Read the publisher's notes. Read Psinas's review. Read Lemos's review (of the first edition). Read timothy's review. Read Allentuck's review. MySQL and Java Developer's Guide . Matthews et al. 4 stars. February 2003. (Wiley) Also available as a download for Adobe reader: .
• Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL. Yank. 4 stars. September 2001. (SitePoint) Quite a bit of this book is available online. Read the press kit. Read Matias's review. Read Czech's review.
• PHP and MySQL For Dummies
  Janet Valade. For Dummies, March 2004 (2nd edition). 3.25 stars.
  Read a sample chapter (from the first edition). If you've seen "For Dummies" books before you might be surprised to find that the sample chapter is clear and correct, this is unlike most books in the series. Read an article by the author (about Vi). Read a review.
• Create Dynamic Web Pages Using PHP and MySQL. Tansley. 3 stars. May 2002. (Addison-Wesley) The author also wrote "Linux and Unix Shell Programming". Read the table of contents.
• Apache, MySQL, and PHP Weekend Crash Course. Schafer. October 2003. (Wiley)
• Essential Php Fast : Building Dynamic Web Sites With Mysql. Stobart. no stars. July 2002. (Springer). Read a sample chapter.
• Web Programming in Python: Techniques for Integrating Linux, Apache and MySQL. Thiruvathukal, Christopher, Shafaee. 4 stars. October 2001. (Prentice Hall) If you already know MySQL, and want to do some Python work with it, this specialized book is all that's available. Read Laird's review.

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