content: I had to buy this book for a Masters degree course. I think a fair amount of data is contained within the text but the organization style is not that good. The author drops hints that he has been writing this book for a long time and that it has helped some major names in the database world find inspiration... that's all well and good but a good book does this not make.The price is obviously way too much for something that is not really a practical guide. Most of the people that buy it will likely only be buying it because they are forced to. What a shame...it would be much nicer to have a quality product to learn from. This is not it in my opinion. It could be done better.