[iOS] Number 0 in a series
 

Hi, new to Calibre Companion (for IOS), and I'm very pleased with its functionality.

There is one thing I've noticed, though, that I'd like to point out.

I have a few series in Calibre that have book as '0' in the series. CC does not show the '[0]' for those books when displaying series information.

For example, I have 'New Spring' (Robert Jordan) as '0' in the 'Wheel of Time' series. All other books in the series are shown as 'Wheel of Time [n]'. However 'New Spring' is shown simply as 'Wheel of Time'.

The same is true for the 'Series:' line in the details for 'New Spring'.

Would be nice if CC showed 'Series Name [0]' rather than 'Series Name' when the number is '0'.

Hi, I'm glad you like it. For that series bug: ha, that's really funny. I guess I never imagined series having a book 0, and so 0 is often used as a placeholder when we have no value. For that reason, I made it not show the series 'book number' if it was zero. :smack: I have a couple ideas about how to fix this, but it will be a while before I can work on this; CC is a side project for me.

I agree that book '0' in a series is strange ... sometimes an author will write a prequel after starting/finishing the series ... there may be other cases.

Thank you for your quick response. I fully understand side projects and their priorities vs 'real' priorities - this would be a nice to have feature and is not urgent by any means. Thank you for giving it your consideration.

Sometimes I'll use "0" to indicate a book related to the series but not part of the series proper. Something like The Science of Discworld or The World of Ice and Fire.

I also use 0 for things that belong to the series but have no 'place' in the sequence. Glossary, guide to the series universe are just a few.
Then there are standalone stories in that universe

0 is incorrect. In the case of say New Spring, it would be 0.5.

Hehe, lots of people use book 0 it seems. It does make sense, thinking about it some more. Until I have a chance to implement a fix, a workaround for now would be to change any "Book 0"s into "Book zero-point-something". It will display the series number, with two decimal points for non-whole numbers, for any value greater than 0.

Thinking of which... does anyone use negative series numbers? Those currently wouldn't display either.

Book 0 is incorrect. It's either a decimal number if it's a novella or short story and a positive whole number if it's a novel or short story collection. There is no 0 and there are no negative numbers.

If an author writes a book that's a prequel and you want to put the series in chronological order, the number may just have to be changed to fit it in. Using 0 is wrong because you cannot have a book 0 because a book 0 would be no book at all.

It's your library. Book zero can be anything you want it to be.

Have you ever seen any book series list online that shows a book 0?

Yes, look at goodreads. Anyway, book list online are not my main criterios.

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Can you link me to some popular book series that start with book 0 on GR please? Thanks.

Not at this moment, sorry.

Irrelevant to my library.

TheDucks in his previous comment gave perfectly valid examples of why he chooses to use 0 to associate certain books to a series. It is not "incorrect" to do so. I do the same as you and just use 0.1, 0.2 etc... but to say it is incorrect is simply your opinion, not an undisputed fact.