If you’ve ever used SQL Trace, STATISTICS IO or any other SQL Server monitoring, you should know what logical reads mean. Or do you? Logical reads server as one of the primary counters for evaluating a Query’s performance. The rule of thumb says “The lower the number of reads, the better the query performs”. I’m sure you’ve heard it before. But… did you notice that in some cases the exact opposite is true? Did you ever see a query improve dramatically in terms of duration and CPU but have it’s logical reads sky-rocket? If you want to understand the TRUE essence of logical reads and be able to tell when it is really a good indicator of performance, I highly recommend you to read this article.