Re: [libreoffice-users] Currently Using Spreadsheet for Personal Project - Thinking About Database

On 8/10/2014 9:50 AM, Oogie McGuire wrote
> If I were doing your system I'd do the following:
> Book table
>       Title
>       number of pages
>       Foreign key links to an authors table and a series table
>       boolean read or not or else a link to a table read status see below
> Authors
>       Name
> Series
>       Name of series like Dragons of Pern or Harry Potter
> Read status
>       started
>       finished
>       wanted
>
> Linking should be by query.

When you design that table for Series, remember:

The same work can be in two or more series. For example: James Legge's 2
volume series _The Sacred Texts of Daoism_ was also part of Max Muller's
50 volume series _The Sacred Texts of the East_.

A series can have two or more authors. For example, _Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine_ contains books written by half a dozen different authors.

Books set in the same world need not be part of a series, even though
marketing mistakenly claims that they are a series. For example: Anne
McCaffrey's _P.E.R.N._ novels.

Consider how you'll handle spin-of series. For example: _Star Trek: The
Next Generation_ alongside _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_, alongside _Star
Trek: Corp of Engineers_, etc.

Consider how you'll handle trilogies such as Douglas Adams _The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, (Officially, it is a trilogy in five
parts, or six parts, if _And Another Thing..._ is included in that trilogy.)

For the Read Status table, you might also want to have tags for
"reread", and "acquired".

###

FWIW, the typical "heavy reader" will take 210 years to read a million
pages:
*  "Heavy Reader" being defined as reading 17 books per year.
(http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/04/04/part-2-the-general-reading-habits-of-americans/)
*  A book is defined as 280 pages (64,000 words) long.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/book-length_n_1334636.html)

jonathon
-- 
ODF: Your documents, your language, your way.

-- 
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted