“Publishing a book is an amazing experience. Writing a book is very, very hard.” Louis Davidson, Simple Talk Editor (@drsql)

At the risk of burying the lede…

“Introduction to PostgreSQL for the data professional” was officially published on Monday, February 3, 2025 and is available on Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, and through various Redgate channels. (Just typing that sentence feels very surreal to me!)

As a co-author with Grant Fritchey, this is the first book that I’ve ever contributed to, and I couldn’t be more thrilled, excited, and humbled to work with such a professional and supportive team. It’s been such a great opportunity, stretching and growing me as a person, writer, and teacher – and I can’t believe it finally came to fruition.

2010 is calling and it wants the book back

But Ryan, it’s 2025. Who reads books anymore? Doesn’t ChatGPT answer all my questions? Doesn’t Redgate create amazing products to help me in this transition and do all the hard work for me?

Hey there, Ryan’s inner dialog… let’s slow down a bit take these one at a time.

Why a book in 2025?

I agree, I don’t buy a ton of books anymore. (To be fair, I never bought a ton of books, but the rest of my family does, and I think that raises my average somehow). When I do purchase a book, particularly in the technical space, it becomes a reference I return to over and over. Part of the reason for that, at least for me, is that a book provides a cohesive narrative and order to the content, even when it’s technical. When I need a refresher or to look up something for reference, context is so important. It’s often hard to find that in one single blog post or generative AI answer.

And interestingly enough, we’ve heard from people across the database spectrum, young and old mature, that there’s still something about holding the book in your hand, even a digital reader, and physically interacting with it.

All the GPTs!

Yes, our ability to access information in a more educational (albeit sometimes hallucinogenic) way with ChatGPT and the like, does change the game a bit. To be honest, I’m not sure there’s anything in the book that you couldn’t get to with ChatGPT, Copilot, and the like. Obviously your skill and ability to create effective prompts will impact the quality of what you get back, and it might not be cohesive instruction on a specific topic.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been using AI more lately for some learning like this and it is usually good at getting me over the hurdle when I’m stuck. But I honestly don’t have the stamina to ask questions that help AI lead me through a topic from beginning to end. (trust me, I realize this likely more of a classic/lazy PEBKAC situation than not)

In the end, it’s totally your call. If GPTs are working for you, great! If you like being able to thumb through a book and mull things over as you go, that’s great, too!

Let’s just leave it at, “It depends!”

Postgres tooling to the rescue

Yes, I do work at Redgate and for more than 25 years they’ve been making some pretty 💯🔥 database developer and DBA tools. For the last few years, they’ve drawn from decades of experience with platforms like SQL Server to add support for Postgres, among other popular database platforms.

Redgate Monitor, in particular, has had support for Postgres for two years at this point. With each release, new features are added which increase visibility into both the running server and individual databases, providing lots of helpful information alongside each metric, chart, and alert.

But you’re not going to learn Postgres through a tool like Redgate Monitor or Flyway. That’s simply not their purpose.

Man, that book is sounding pretty good at this point, eh? 😉

OK, tell me more

At this point in my career, and certainly in my PostgreSQL career, I feel like my “origin” story is getting a bit long in the tooth. But I’m encouraged and surprised every time I talk about how I ended up working full-time with PostgreSQL after spending nearly 15 years of my career using Microsoft and SQL Server data tools, and it ends up resonating with other people beginning on a similar journey.

And that, in a nutshell, is why this book exists. I’ve only community at a deeper level for about seven years. I haven’t been a part of the PostgreSQL project for nearly three decades like many of those closest to the development of the project. I won’t be the guy to walk you through the code base and show you how to submit your first patch to fix that pesky bug, at least not yet. (I still have dreams of getting my first patch submitted sooner than later). But I can share some of my struggles and learnings along the way that helped me make the initial transition from SQL Server to Postgres, and additionally, many of the key aspects that I’ve become more knowledgeable about once I fully committed to my investment in Postgres.

In short, if you have experience with other databases, particularly SQL Server, and you want to start learning about and using Postgres, this is a great book to start with IMHO. And trust me, I’m not saying that to sell more copies. Both Grant and I have spent the last few years making similar transitions and this book is an attempt to help you overcome some of the early stumbles we made. It won’t answer every deep, technical aspect of Postgres, but hopefully the parts that you’re likely to bump up against early on to keep you moving forward.

We do plan to keep the book updated as often as makes sense. In most cases, we’ll examine new major releases of Postgres each Fall and determine if something in the book needs to be updated. Or, if a spiffy new feature is released, we’ll give it a hard look and possibly add a new chapter. It’s better for everyone (including us!!) if we do our best to keep the book relevant and helpful.

In fact, Grant and I sat down with Louis Davidson on the Simple Talks podcast recently to talk about the process of writing the book, challenges, unexpected surprises, and what the future might hold for this and other Postgres resources. Give it a listen wherever you subscribe to podcasts or watch the YouTube recording below.

Get your copy!

So, I’ve convinced you, have I? 🎉🎉🎉

There are multiple ways to get your own copy of the book

First and foremost, you can actually get a free copy of the book in PDF format by registering with Redgate on the product page.

Second, it’s available from Amazon and Barnes and Nobel as mentioned at the beginning of this post.

But most importantly, we’d love to hear what you think about the book, questions you may have, and areas that could be improved in future editions.

Happy Postgres’ing!!