In December, just before Christmas, I picked up the book Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services by Brian Larson.  Don’t ask me why I’m buying tech books just before the holidays…I didn’t have time to read it until after the new year….anyway I just finished the first 5 chapters of the book and here are my impressions.

Chapter 1 – All tech books seem to start with an overview and this one is no different.  I found the writing style easy to read and understand, unlike some other tech books I’ve read.  It is a good overview of Reporting Services, it start with the basics of the product and doesn’t assume the reader already knows about the product.  Since I have already worked with the previous two versions of Reporting Services, I skimmed over some portions of this chapter.

Chapter 2 – All about installing Reporting Services.  Since I had already installed the product before I read the chapter, this was mostly review too.  But, again, I found the writing style to be very easy to read.  Each step of the install process is documented and clearly explained.

Chapter 3 – The title of this chapter is Database Basics.  Which means if you have been working with SQL Server you don’t need to read this chapter, except for the few pages explaining the Galactic Delivery Services database, which the database is used throughout the book.  So I pretty much skipped this chapter.  Its target audience is readers new to databases and report writing.

Chapter 4 – This is where the actual work begins.  Or so I thought.  This chapter has you using the report wizard to write reports.  Frankly, I haven’t met anyone who actually creates reports this way.  I did go through the exercises anyway.  The book could do without this chapter, it doesn’t add any value to the book.

Chapter 5 – Oh yea! No more report wizard.  In this chapter you start with a blank report and build it up from the beginning.  I found the step by step directions to be very easy to follow.  Again, features of the product that would be used by a person new to databases and report writing are emphasized, such as the Graphical Query Designer (using that gave me flashbacks of Access 97).  But I did learn some new things such as the changes in BIDS (or VS 2008).

So, my first impression are this:  the book is very well written, but experienced folks will be skipping over pages to get to the real meat.