Practical SQL, 2nd Edition

Introduction

Shortly after joining the staff of USA Today, I received a dataset that I would analyze almost every week for the next decade. It was the weekly Best-Selling Books list, which ranked the nation’s top-selling titles based on confidential sales data. Not only did the list produce an endless stream of story ideas to pitch, it also captured the zeitgeist of America in a singular way.

Did you know that cookbooks sell a bit more during the week of Mother’s Day or that Oprah Winfrey turned many obscure writers into number-one best-selling authors just by having them on her show? Every week, the book list editor and I pored over the sales ...