I just have to say this. I¹m not a shill for anybody involved, just extremely excited and needing to say something about it... I had received a copy of this book several months ago, but had lacked the time or inclination to open it and start reading. <rave> What a mistake! I live this stuff almost every day, and reading it sooner would have benefited me immediately. The book (whose full title is ³Oracle Wait Interface: A Practical Guide to Performance Diagnostics & Tuning²) is simply spectacular, both for the quality of its writing as well as the depth of the material. Practical? Indeed, indispensible! The three authors, Richmond Shee, Kirti Deshpande, and K Gopalakrishnan, have done a wonderful job in organizing a enormous subject area into manageable chunks. They have also managed to render potentially bone-dry source material into very readable text, interspersed heavily with code examples and output, sidebars, and analogies. This is a good read as well as an authoritative reference. I¹m still unable to read it steadily for long periods of time, as the analogy of trying to drink from a fire-hose is relevant here. But picking it up and reading different sections, treating it like a reference, has proved rewarding. Richmond, Kirti, and K had an absolute ³dream team² of reviewers on this book in Kyle Hailey, John Kanagaraj, Craig Shallahamer, and Graham Wood. The combined efforts of the three authors and the four technical editors blows my mind. All I can say is ? get it! You may (like me) not read it immediately. But, keep it handy. Along with the Google, Ixora, Asktom, JLComp, MetaLink websites, this book is the place to find explanation for the unexplainable. Start skimming through it and recognize situations that had previously baffled now being explained (and proved) in full. It is like a light coming on. </rave> Simply spectacular! My sincere thanks to the authoring and the editing team! -Tim -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l