And away we go! Not sure how long this sale lasts so load up.
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I need to brush up on my statistics. Thanks for the recommendations!
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Mastering power bi brett powell is best as know.
All,
I’d like to revise my earlier recommendation for the best book to start with if you’re interested in using R within Power BI. The R for Data Science book by Wickham that I recommended is still excellent. However, it is heavily oriented toward data prep and management within R. The more I use R within Power BI, the more I realize that you can skip learning a large percentage of this, and simply call R scripts from within Power Query, taking advantage of the techniques you already know to do the vast majority of your data prep and postprocessing within PQ. As a result, I now recommend:
R in Action: Data Analysis and Graphics with R 2nd Edition by Dr. Robert Kabacoff
This book covers the basics of data prep and management, but is very heavily focused on the two main areas likely of greatest interest to Power BI users: intermediate and advanced statistical methods, and the use of the ggplot2 package to create all sorts of highly customizable visuals not found within the Power BI native visual types, or even in many cases not available as a Power BI custom visual. Kabacoff writes in a very clear, easy to understand style with a lot of examples and pictures. He also maintains the Quick-R site, one of my go-to sites for R info.
I’m currently working on a full Enterprise DNA portal course on R for Power BI Users to be released this summer, but also plan to do a few YouTube videos sooner to introduce the topic.
– Brian
PS – I just found an ongoing 40% off promotion from the publisher on all of their R books including the one recommended above.
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Just taken delivery of a rather hefty tome called Data Sketches by Nadieh Bremer & Shirley Wu.
It’s not a Power BI Book but an interesting data visualisation book, they use a variety of different tools, talk through their processes, sketches for the projects that are in the book. Some of the projects they feature definitely veer towards “data art”.
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All,
Got a great new book to add to the EDNA book recommendation list - “Expert Data Modeling with Power BI” by MS MVP Soheil Bakhshi. This is a really comprehensive, well-written guide to data modeling written specifically for PBI users, with a lot of nice visuals, screenshots, and sample data and code files. The only thing I don’t like about it is the title, which to me implies it’s intended for an expert audience. There are some expert concepts covered in the book, but I think it’s suitable for users at all level from beginner up.
Soheil does an excellent job conveying complex concepts in simple, easy to understand language. The book covers data prep as well as data modeling, and addresses important areas that many users struggle with, including identifying and building fact and dimension tables, best practices for building a star schema model, handling slowly changing dimensions, handling many-to-many relationship, dealing with active and inactive relationships, using aggregations and dataflows, etc.
If I were building a library from scratch and had to choose just one book for each of the four pillars, here’s what I would choose:
Data Prep - “Collect, Combine and Transform Data Using Power Query in Excel and Power BI” by Raviv
Data Modeling - "Expert Data Modeling with Power BI", by Bakhshi
DAX - “The Definitive Guide to DAX, 2nd ed.”, by Russo and Ferrari
Visualization - " The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Tufte
That’s a hell of a reference shelf in just four books.
- Brian
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Half price on Kindle!
Thanks for the info! That’s definitely a bargain, but when it comes to reference books, I’m still an old-school, dead-tree version guy…
- Brian
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I have been using Kindle since 2017 as it helps in contributing towards environment without actually doing much and who knows how many times I would have dropped hardcover/paperback books on my face.
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I’m a book lover for sure @BrianJ but my Kindle Fire means I have hundreds of books at my finger tips so I can easily switch books if I want. Pre-Covid it was handy to have lots of Power BI books at hand if I needed a reference. I can also annotate, bookmark (no pun intended) pages without have to doodle on my actual pages. Zoom into photos……whole new world 
2nd Edition of Greg Deckler’s Power BI Cookbook has arrived. I’m not sure how much of an upgrade it is on the 1st edition but from what I’ve read there seems to be a decent amount of new content and/or updated content.
All,
Sorry – I have been a bit remiss about posting book recommendations recently. However, 2021 was a great year for Power BI books here are the ones I read that I thought were exceptional.
Matt Allington - “Supercharge Power BI, 3rd ed.”
Soheil Bakhshi - “Expert Data Modeling with Power BI”
Greg Deckler (Microsoft MVP) and Brett Powell - “Microsoft Power BI Cookbook, 2nd ed.”
Greg Deckler (Microsoft MVP) - “Learn Power BI, 2nd ed.”
Andrea Janicijevic - “Power Query Cookbook”
Courtney Marchese - “Information Design for the Common Good” (note: not a Power BI book, but a wealth of visualization insights that will benefit any BI professional)
George Mount - “Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R”
Ken Puls and Miguel Angel Escobar “Master Your Data with Power Query in Excel and Power BI”
Luca Zavarella - “Extending Power BI with Python and R”
Huge thanks to all of these folks. Nobody is buying a vacation home on Lake Como with the money they make from Power BI books. They all undertake this enormous task because they are passionate about what they do and want to share their expertise with the rest of us, which I find extremely inspiring.
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All,
Here’s my first read and recommendation of 2022 – Extreme DAX by Henk Vlootman and Michiel Rozema.
@ambepat asked a great question – how do I go about reviewing books? The answer depends largely on the book itself. I’m currently reading Data Story by Nancy Duarte about data storytelling. It’s a very linear, readable book that you can actually digest start to finish. In most cases however, the books I’m reading are at least partially reference books, which I read a bit differently.
In those, I tend to focus on the book more holistically – does it cover useful material not addressed elsewhere? Is it clear and well written with good visuals, screenshots and examples (sample code where relevant)? For the topics I know well, I tend not to spend as much time on those – reviewing them mainly from the perspective of someone for whom that material will be new.
For the topics I don’t know well, those I dive into in detail looking at how well the information is organized (will I be able to easily find it when I encounter that problem in my work?), how innovative/creative is the content? (I.e. would I be able to find this elsewhere?), how much might it help me find a new or better way to teach a complex topic? And finally, just in a broad sense how much did I enjoy reading the book?
I tend to do a fair amount of research before purchasing a book (I like hard copies for my reference library, and these tend to be pretty expensive, so I do my homework upfront), so I’ve ended up with very few duds in my library.
Also, at @DavieJoe 's recommendation reading “Atlas of the Invisible”, which is a beautiful and insightful book about mapping. Once I finish it I will post a thorough review.
– Brian
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All fantastic books and all are already in my collection! #bookfiend
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Thank you for sharing some great books and resources.
Just wanted to add a beginner friendly free video resource to the list.
Getting Started with DAX Formulas in Power BI, Power Pivot, and SSAS
I think Eugene Meidinger has a nice way of explaining the concepts, especially to a beginner audience.
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Dear Friends,
I come from a background with minimal exposure to Business domains.
I feel that some basic knowledge of Business concepts will be a good starting point for people like me.
As a first step, I have enrolled in a beginner level course in Business metrics.
I am sharing the details as below:
Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies
I hope this will be useful.
PS: Please share details of similar books/courses that you think might be helpful.
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All,
Detailed book review of Learn Power BI 2nd Ed. by Greg Deckler that I just posted on LinkedIn.
- Brian
Despite the fact that a large % of Power BI users are novices, there are relatively few excellent beginner books. Here’s a recent one that I think gets it exactly right…
Power BI beginner books are tricky in part because the program is updated by Microsoft almost every month, so content can quickly become outdated. Greg Deckler (Microsoft MVP) has taken a very smart approach to making this book as “evergreen” as possible. First, he has clearly updated all of the content in this book very recently to capture the newest elements in Power BI.
Second, and more importantly, he does an outstanding job explaining the key concepts relevant to each section, then following up with a summary, questions and a recommended list of further reading materials. Thus, even if the specific “click here, insert this” steps change over time, this book will remain a very valuable resource.
Greg is one of my favorite Power BI authors. He has a tremendous breadth and depth of Power BI knowledge, explains complex concepts in a clear and intuitive way, but also always takes a unique and creative approach to his subject matter. In this book, he has included topics I’ve never seen addressed in any Power BI book, much less a beginner’s guide. Rather than jumping right into the Power BI how-to’s, an early chapter of this book focuses on properly planning Power BI projects, from identifying stakeholders, goals and requirements to discussing the different team roles required - content that I think would benefit even many experienced Power BI users.
Similarly, at the end of the book, he provides an insightful exploration of the current BI job market including a detailed breakdown of the typical responsibilities, requirements and even salaries of different BI-related jobs, and practical BI-specific career advice, e.g., interview strategies and how to negotiate salary and benefits.
I would highly recommend this book to any Power BI beginner looking to quickly become a highly proficient, well-rounded practitioner, I would also commend it to those looking for advice on strategically advancing their career in the BI space from someone who was been there and done that at the highest level.
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Hi @BrianJ
thanks for the recommendations
This is just a thought, might be good also that it posted within the learning center portal " Resources".
Thanks
Keith