Look back and realize how far you came
It appeared out of nowhere while I was having a strong argument with the ton of dust that had taken over my computer room. My former favourite book, "Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL server 2000" brought an upset look to my face, the one I usually get from our NetApp admin. He usually gives me such a look when I ask him for more disk space. At the time of SQL 2000 there were far less good SQL books available than today and amazing SQL programming tricks were living on Itzik’s book pages; and, similar to the Rubeus Hagrid’s “The Monster Book of Monsters” it attacked anyone who attempted to open it, unleashing wild and exciting brilliant ideas. Nowadays there are a lot of SQL books but not all of them are worth reading. Some of them should be strongly avoided and if you touch them you should immediately wash your hands and have a drink or three. A few month ago I was asked to technically review some new SQL Server book. Reading their missleading claims of how the optim...