I know two DB bibles which explain how a DB engine actually works. It's much more interesting reading than another SQL manual. But it's not awfully practical if

I know two DB bibles which explain how a DB engine actually works. It's much more interesting reading than another SQL manual. But it's not awfully practical if you have no particular interest in DB technology. And both are pretty dense. * https://www.amazon.com/Database-Systems-Complete-Book-2nd/dp https://www.amazon.com/Database-Systems-Complete-Book-2nd/dp * https://www.amazon.com/Database-System-Concepts-Abraham-Silberschatz/dp/1260084507 https://www.amazon.com/Database-System-Concepts-Abraham-Silb... There's a very cool not-quite-alternativE: https://leanpub.com/how-query-engines-work https://leanpub.com/how-query-engines-work. It covers a fair chunk of DB technology but not storage. Definitely check out their repository at https://github.com/andygrove/how-query-engines-work/tree/main/jvm https://github.com/andygrove/how-query-engines-work/tree/mai... . A companion to DDIA would be https://www.amazon.com/Database-Internals-Deep-Distributed-Systems/dp/1492040347 https://www.amazon.com/Database-Internals-Deep-Distributed-S... (especially its treatment of LSM trees which is harder to come by).