Good books on Database fundamentals

In My Humble Opinion
1

One of my business partners wants to become more involved in the product development.

This is what is known as A VERY BAD IDEA. :slight_smile:

But he is not to be dissuaded.

So I need to get him a book for a total novice on database design and fundamentals. He has no background in software or database development. He is an engineer.

Actually, a lot of our discussions *will *go better if he has some basic database fundamentals.

All book suggestions will be welcome. (Suggestions on how to hide the body will be as well…)

2

May I suggest Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Databases?

And of course, you can’t go wrong with Database Development for Dummies.

3

They both look great. I have already passed them on to him.

4

Ramakrishnan & Gehrke is one of the more popular intro database textbooks, but that may be more detailed than what you’re looking for.

5

Beginning Database Design: From Novice to Professional

The good thing about this book is that it doesn’t focus on any particular piece of database software, but is more of an introduction to the principles behind database design. The author walks you through how to work out what sort of information you need in your database, and how different piece of information need to relate to one another in order to get what you want out of the database.

If you want some free online information about particular database systems, you can get some decent stuff here.