The Manga Guide to Databases
Author: Mana Takahashi
Pages: 224
Publisher: No Starch Press
ISBN: 1593271905
Introduction
While writing this review, I turned my head right and visually browsed my bookshelf. Somewhere in the third row there are six different books related to databases, especially MySQL. On the opposite corner of the shelf there’s “the best of” section of manga from my collection. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I will read a manga that focuses on databases.
About the author
Mana Takahashi is a graduate of the Tokyo University, Faculty of Economics. She is an active technical writer and has published a number of books on topics such as Java, C, XML, Information Engineering, and System Administration.
Inside the book
This is quite an innovative concept for me. Since I got my hand on this guide I checked Amazon and found out that No Starch Press published a number of books in which they simplify some important topics such as statistics or electricity, by masquerading them inside a full-fledged manga comic.
The story of “The Manga Guide to Databases” follows princess Ruruna from the Kingdom of Kod whose parents went abroad and left her to manage the kingdom. With all the repetitive tasks and different ways the regular jobs can get optimized, she desperately needs some help. Help is indeed on the way, a tiny fairy comes into the game and shows the princess the importance of databases and ways of mangling with structured data.
Overall the book is designed to introduce the readers to databases, as well as show them the optimal ways of modeling and design. About 90% of the content is provided through a comic storyline, while some important details are presented on their own after every chapter.
To those familiar with manga – no – you don’t read this from right to left.
Final thoughts
This is really a compelling concept that could be of use in various situations – from educating your teens to move forward into IT (and follow your steps), or even using it for initial classes for database related lectures in academia.
In more than a casual way, this manga will be of good use for those wanting to understand database concepts and can act as a perfect starting material for the absolute beginners in this field of work.