Database Systems Reading List: Fundamentals, Design, Engines, and Optimizations

This document presents a comprehensive, structured bibliography of seminal papers covering all major aspects of database systems. It is organized into numbered sections that correspond to typical topics in a database curriculum.

1. Basics lists foundational works such as Codd's relational model (1970), the original SEQUEL language (1974), and early critiques of SQL.

2. System Design is divided into RDBMS and NoSQL subsections, citing classic systems (System R, INGRES, Postgres) and modern distributed stores (Spanner, Megastore, TiDB, PolarDB Serverless).

3. SQL Engine covers optimizer frameworks, transformation techniques, nested query handling, join‑order algorithms, cost models, statistics, probabilistic counting, and execution‑engine implementations (Volcano, MonetDB/X100, compiled query plans, MPP optimizations).

4. Storage Engine surveys storage structures from B‑Trees to LSM‑Trees, modern SSD‑aware designs (WiscKey, LeanStore, learned indexes), and recent research on NVM and fractal trees.

5. Transaction & Scheduling includes classic concurrency‑control papers, ARIES recovery, modern deterministic and MVCC systems, and resource‑scaling/autoscaling studies.

6. Workload, Network, Quality, Diagnosis & Tuning provides references on benchmarks (TPC‑H analysis), network redesign for fast RDMA, optimizer testing, and automatic tuning in commercial systems.

Each entry includes the paper title, authors, publication year, and a direct link to the PDF or PDF‑hosted version. The list serves as a curated guide for researchers, students, and practitioners seeking authoritative sources on database theory, architecture, and engineering.