7 Essential MongoDB Books for Administrators and Developers

MongoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL database. Unlike traditional SQL database, you don’t need to define a schema. The schema is embedded in the data document itself, making it easy for you to change the schema at anytime without worrying about changing any of the previous documents that are loaded.

If you are thinking about getting started on MongoDB, pick one of the book from the following list and get started.

I recommend the 1st three books from the following list, which complement each-other and are essential for your library, if you like to become proficient in MongoDB.

1. MongoDB: The Definitive Guide by Kristina Chodorow – This book is already in 2nd edition, which covers the basics of MongoDB. If you are new to MongoDB, this book will walk you through and make you comfortable with the database. This book is close to 400 pages with 23 chapters that are organized into four parts 1) Introduction 2) Designing your Application 3) Replication 4) Sharding 5) Application Administration 6) Server Administration
2. MongoDB Applied Design Patterns by Rick Copeland – If you already have some experience on MongoDB and like to know how you can efficiently design your application, you should read this book. This book have several practical uses cases that are focussed on specific industries like Ecommerce, Content Management System, etc. Just going through all the uses cases will help you to design an application for your specific requirement.
3. Scaling MongoDB by Kristina Chodorow – Once you have the basic MongoDB setup and working effectively, you need to know about sharding, cluster and administration. This is a small book with less than 70 pages that focus mainly on Sharding and clustering administration. Again, this is not for newbies. You should already have experience on MongoDB before you get this book.
4. MongoDB in Action by Kyle Banker – While this book is little bit outdated, you’ll still get tons of value from this book, if you are new to MongoDB. If you like the “in Action” series of books, and if you are new to MongoDB, you should consider this book.
5. The Definitive Guide to MongoDB by David Hows, Eelco Plugge, Peter Membrey and Tim Hawkins – This is one of the most recent edition of MongoDB, which covers all the new features of MongoDB. This book is helpful for both newbies and those who are already experienced, but like to explore the new MongoDB features. There is a separate section dedicated for developing with MongoDB, which covers how to use PHP and python with MongoDB.
6. Pro Hibernate and MongoDB by Anghel Leonard – This is an unique combination of how to use Hibernate and MongoDB to develop your application. This book is helpful if you are already using Hibernate and like to understand how to take advantage of the NoSQL big data solution in your application by integrating MongoDB and Hibernate.
7. MongoDB and PHP by Steve Francia – This is a very short book with just 60 pages. If you are a PHP programmer, who are used to developing application with MySQL or Oracle, and like to explore and understand how to to program for MongoDB, this might give you a good start. But, don’t expect this to go very deep into everything that you need to know about PHP-MongoDB programming. This will give you a jumpstart and you need to take it up from there. If you program in Python, MongoDB and Python will give you a jumpstat. Also, in general programmers will find this Tips and Tricks for MongoDB Developers book helpful.

Note: Again, if you are not sure which book to buy from this list, I recommend the 1st three books from the above list, which complement each-other and are essential if you want to implement MongoDB in a production environment.