Around a week ago, I got mail saying that authors wanted me to have their book. For free. That's relatively important because getting things for free means you should pay for it in other way (that's my position, it was not suggested in any way in the mails). Plus – I generally never read technical books (really – I just don't), so there was no chance I would get it myself, if it wasn't gifted.

After some mails I got mobi version of PostgreSQL: Up and Running.

The book is not very long (thankfully, I don't like technical books), and it was much easier and more pleasant to read than I expected.

It covers basics. By basics I mean – how to install, what to use to connect, how to make backups using pg_dump, pgAdmin + pgAgent plus a very brief parts on more advanced topics like foreign data wrappers or replication.

For starters – I am not target for the book. The way I see it, it is supposed to be read by people who are just starting their adventure with PostgreSQL, or are even planning it.

And, given the recent PR wins for PostgreSQL – it might be the best book for current time. We have opportunity to bring many more users to our side of DB worlds, and Regina+Leo book looks like almost perfect primer. After all – we can't really expect everyone who considers to use Pg to read 1032 pages of Korry Douglas' “PostgreSQL“, and even 360 or 468 pages of “PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook" and “PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance" are a stretch.

Not to mention that even their titles are not really “newbie friendly".

Regina/Leo book fills the gap – it is a good book to start and provide some basic answers.

Of course it doesn't mean it's flawless – there are some issues with wording or technical correctness of some statements, but none of this is a big, serious problem.

All in all – if you're starting with PostgreSQL – at least consider getting and reading it. You can easily finish it in one afternoon so it's not big of a time investment, and it will pay off.