[tlug] Simple database application recommendation?

["Shannon Jacobs" <shannon.jacobs@example.com>]

I don't recall whether or not I've asked this question before, and
it's a long-term problem I've been wrestling with... I hope no one is
bothered if it's a repeat request, since I obviously didn't get a
solid answer last time, if there was one here... (I've definitely
asked elsewhere.)

Context is that I have an ancient book database application. This was
actually something I started creating about 25 years ago, and I'm
still using it. The original system still runs in dBase II under DOS
(so help me), but I also have a query front end written in Perl/CGI
(hosted on Tripod). The Perl stuff was mostly done about 10 years ago,
and feeds off of data exported from dBase. What I'd like to do is
clean up the mess and redo it in some nifty modern database
application, but I haven't been able to decide what would be least
painful to work with. If you think it would clarify the scope of the
project, I can send you the URL, but it's certainly nothing that I'm
proud of. You can practically see the lines between the good code I
"inherited" from an address query system and my bizarre stuff... The
way it links to the second table (of authors) is especially
humiliating, but the original address list was in a single table.

(I actually converted it to a Palm DB some years ago, but that
experiment was quite painful and tedious and the resulting performance
was unacceptable, so that's a good example of the kind of approach I
want to avoid.)

Any recommendations?