Another Generally Positive Review for Test-Driven Database Development

I would be a fool to think that my first book would receive only positive feedback.  This review, I think, is excellent.  I like it for three reasons:

1. My own self-interest
2. The reviewer clearly understood what he was reviewing
3. It contains actionable criticisms that will benefit a 2nd edition, if there is one

Vanity of the Database Authors

Mr. Carlson's review is, I think, generally positive.  This means that it will cause more people to buy my book, which is nice.  It also means that it fans the flames of my own vanity, which is really nice.  Most importantly, though, it means that more people are likely to actually read my book which, in turn, means more people are likely to take a sane approach to database development.

Deep Understanding

The author of the review in question clearly took the time to read, understand, and evaluate the concepts in my book.  I think a lot of people who buy books do this but, for some reason, only about half of people who write reviews appear to do it.

Mr. Carlson didn't necessarily understand all of my motivations or what I know about outside the scope of Test-Driven Database Development: Unlocking Agility but... hey... who's fault is that?  Right?

Actionable Criticisms

Not everything Mr. Carlson has to say is positive but those bits which are negative are highly actionable.  He says I give the appearance of not understanding normalization.  I do understand how to do it and why people do it in addition to why it actually should be done.  However, looking back, I can see how someone might get the impression I don't if they were basing their opinion solely on my book.  In the 2nd edition, I will remedy that by adding material that addresses those kinds of concepts.

Likewise, he makes the point that I don't address object-relational-mapping at all.  He rightly guessed that it is because ORM runs contrary the message I send - databases as instances of classes with tightly-controlled and rigorously-tested sets of exposed behaviors.  Nevertheless, his argument is that ORM is a very popular concept in designing interactions with databases is true.  If I ever get to do a second edition, which I happily think I might, and ORM is still popular, which I sadly believe it may be, then I will address it at that time.

I may address those concepts sooner, too, in the form of blog entries or articles.