Which SQL should I use?

I have a quick question and I know ultimatly the answer will come down to personal prefrence but i figured I should get some opinions. I just have been teaching myself c++ for a while now and I want to write a functional simple program. I was moving into my house and found boxes and boxes of comic books, so i figured I would attempt to write a program that would be a database for storing and orginizing my comic books. I have been searching the internet and I don't want to have to purchace something like MS SQL if I don't have to and I again want to rpogram to be compiled in c++ since thats the only language that I know. Any suggestions On were to begin as far as which database libraries to use? I was reading about SQLite but i have heard that their are better libraries out their.

Do you want this database engine to be embedded in your compiled application, or do you want to connect to an external SQL server, running as a daemon?

I believe SQLite is an embedded database system, while the more commonly used open source database server systems are

1. MySQL -- if you want quick and easy, without being too theoretically rigorous

2. PostgreSQL -- if you want something that can compete in features and syntax with Oracle, Sybase or MSSQL

3. FireBird -- another very capable SQL DBMS, not quite as full-featured or mature as PostgreSQL (IMHO), but with some interesting advantages. Actually, I Firebird also has an embedded version, which is perfect for compiling inside your C/C++ application. I seem to recall that it was fairly small, something like 750K . (Not sure about this, so you should do some searching on the Firebird site.)

I want it to be embedded in my compiled application, can they all do this?

Are you sure you want to embed the server right in your program? This means there is no external server, only a single client can use it, etc... With stand-alone servers, you will still embed the SQL calls in your C++ code, just not the entire server.

Of the above open source servers he mentioned, SQLite can only be embedded. Both FireBird and MySQL can be either embedded or run externally.

Well the ultimate goal of the program is for their to be a large database server that the clients databases will be uploaded into, so I guess I want the stand alone server. MY only q would be would everyone who has a copy of my app need to also have MYSQL on their computers?