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

Hey Jonathan,

responded in line but the gist is - this is a hobby and I'm not going to 
spend hours and hours thinking about corner cases/etc... if a book has 
multiple authors, I'll pick one, if it belongs to multiple series, I'll 
pick one, if it's a spin off to a main series, I'll just track the spin 
off and ignore that it's part of a larger set. This will suit my needs fine.
> 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_.
Yes I'll just pick one series and stick with it - again this is a hobby 
project that I'm not going to spend ages thinking about corner cases.
> 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.
I won't treat them any differently - even if it's not 100% correct to 
the author. See above.
> 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)
Yes I know the above - FWIW again this is a hobby so I'm not sticking to 
"280 pages or more" - that's absurd for a hobby to be so strict. My rule 
is just that I don't count a book unless I read the entire thing - this 
is unfortunate as I'm in law school reading thousands and thousands of 
pages, none of which I'll count ;) But, it's been a 10 year project and 
I'm not going to quit on it - even if the reality is it'll be very very 
hard to complete. I have a tracker stats sheet on the spreadsheet file 
and it shows my current pace and the year I can anticipate finishing . . 
. and no, it's not within one lifetime :)


Best,
Joel

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