Tribal SQL

There is no great revelation in this post as I suspect many folks in the SQL community have already read Tribal SQL, which was originally published in 2013 by Simple Talk Publishing. I had started reading Tribal SQL a while ago but got distracted and did not finish it. Recently I decided to refocus my efforts by dedicating my morning commute and lunch hours to finishing the book. I am grateful for the effort since I proved to myself that it was possible to read a technical book from cover to cover and actually enjoy it. The writers (Dave Ballantyne, John Barnett, Diana Dee, Kevin Feasel, Tara Kizer, Chuck Lathrope, Stephanie Locke, Colleen Morrow, Dev Nambi, Bob Pusateri, Mark S. Rasmussen, Wil Sisney, Shaun J. Stuart, David Tate, and Matt Velic) did a great job with their subject areas and succeeded in writing interesting and informative chapters. The format easily lends itself to picking it up and reading relevant chapters when needed. Though I chose to read it from cover to cover, it is certainly not necessary.

Tribal SQL has already paid dividends on my reading investment. Every chapter had gems of information to file away or to investigate right away. I had immediate application for the chapters on Database Mail and Auditing. I loved that I learned something new from topics as mundane as SQL Server backups and security.

Tribal SQL is a must read for SQL DBAs.