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Old 11-14-2010, 07:01 AM   #1
kiwidude
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Any tips for managing series counts?

I'm sure I'm not the only person around who likes to read all the books in a series in order where possible. Obviously Calibre handles that very nicely.

However what about when you do not yet have the final books in a series? Given a choice of series available to read I would usually pick a "complete" one first. Does anyone else try to store in some way that there are additional books they need to get to "finish" the series?

I've experimented with a few methods but would love to hear from others who may have better ideas. Some things I have tried:

- if it's a trilogy, putting Trilogy in the series name. Works great for genuine trilogies but gets questionable for other counts (Duology, Quadrology etc). Also you can debate the semantics of "Trilogy" since often there are series of standalone books involving the same character that can be read independently.

- adding the number of books in the series to the series name. So it might look like "The Gatekeepers (4) [1]" for the first entry on screen. Tried this for a while but looks a bit busy though.

- adding empty book entries for books missing in the series, with a "Missing" tag so I can try to source at a later date. This is my preferred approach currently.

Does anyone else have any suggestions/thoughts?

Last edited by kiwidude; 11-14-2010 at 07:03 AM.
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Old 11-14-2010, 09:29 AM   #2
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This is always a difficult issue - especially as for many series new ones get added even after you thought it was finished !

I personally use your approach of adding entries for those I know about with a 'WISHLIST' tag. Another possibility would be to add a 'MaxInSeries' custom column - but that would have the disadvantage of having to come back retrospectively to update it every time a series gets extended.
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Old 11-14-2010, 10:26 AM   #3
kiwidude
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Indeed a thorny one . Totally agree on not wanting to put metadata at row level (which custom columns do) to indicate the number of items in the series because of the maintenance issue. Perhaps if Calibre had the database extended to allow an optional MaxCount or similar field on the series table then you could use that - that way you only have to edit the series tag?

The Missing/Wishlist tag approach helps solve one of the issues, but it doesn't help you record whether the series is "finished" or not. Of course there can always be occasions where years later either the author revisits (or even after death someone else continues it) but these are the exception rather than the norm.

If extending a series tag is not a likely enhancement, I guess maybe another option is another tag like "CompleteSeries" or similar on the first book or something?

I have a slightly similar issue with knowing whether I have all the books of an author or not. Again an attribute at the author level (such as being able to tag authors) would help but not possible currently.

Like I said, open to better ideas with features Calibre has today
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Old 11-14-2010, 10:29 AM   #4
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Hmmm.... another thought. Maybe a "Last In Series" tag that you put on the last entry for your series you believe are complete. That way in the rare circumstance it gets extended you just move the tag on by one?
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Old 11-14-2010, 12:22 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kiwidude View Post
I'm sure I'm not the only person around who likes to read all the books in a series in order where possible. Obviously Calibre handles that very nicely.

However what about when you do not yet have the final books in a series? Given a choice of series available to read I would usually pick a "complete" one first. Does anyone else try to store in some way that there are additional books they need to get to "finish" the series?

I've experimented with a few methods but would love to hear from others who may have better ideas. Some things I have tried:

- if it's a trilogy, putting Trilogy in the series name. Works great for genuine trilogies but gets questionable for other counts (Duology, Quadrology etc). Also you can debate the semantics of "Trilogy" since often there are series of standalone books involving the same character that can be read independently.

- adding the number of books in the series to the series name. So it might look like "The Gatekeepers (4) [1]" for the first entry on screen. Tried this for a while but looks a bit busy though.

- adding empty book entries for books missing in the series, with a "Missing" tag so I can try to source at a later date. This is my preferred approach currently.

Does anyone else have any suggestions/thoughts?
I use Calibre's "Create empty book" feature and set it to the books cover and meta-data, just like the book would.
I created a tag "[Placeholder]" that I remove when I finally drop the book into the formats box in the Meta-data editor.
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Old 11-14-2010, 12:54 PM   #6
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I never use the book numbering feature in Calibre at all. I just modify the title to include the book order. For example, I have all the JD Robb 'in Death' books so after I download the metadata and get the cover in there, I change the book title to, for example: "In Death #01: Naked in Death." And the book displays in Calibre with that title. I can sort by author or title and view the whole series in order.
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