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Differentiate "Volumes" from "Book"
M
mariana_mmMar 31, 2026
I'll explain in a practical example: "War and Peace" is 1 book, but because it is such a large one, most publishers divide it into multiple volumes. I have the book in 4 volumes, and once read, my stats will say that I've read 4 books by Leo Tolstoy. It's not accurate, I've only read 1 book, it just so happens that it is divided in 4 physical volumes. I think we should be able to divide them in different volumes in storygraph (different ISBN, covers, page numbers, etc), but make them part of one single book, so the author stats (and other stats like moods/genres etc) are also correct.
Comments
I had similar thoughts with "a story" vs "an item".
If I read the book The fellowship of the ring and the book The two towers and the book The return of the King, I've read the Lord of the Ring.
If I read the Peace and War omnibus by Haldeman, I've read his novels Forever War and Forever Peace.
And similarly for short story collections.
For me this is less about the book count and more the issue of "the plot of forever war sounds familiar, have I read it? Storygraph says no...". But I think the same issue crops up with multi volume Tolstoy
ninj In the case of Lord of the Rings, the books are standalone. They actually are 3 different books from one series, and storygraph has that feature. Which is great. But what I see ends up happening is, in the case of one book being divided into many volumes, most users use that "series" feature in storygraph, to be able to put 2 books, that are actually one. But that is not correct.
For instance, "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R R Martin is also a series with 5 books. Which is correct. But in the portuguese version, publishers divided each book into two volumes.. So a portuguese reader will read 10 books of a series, while an american reader will read 5.. I think that is very weird and yes, it skews a lot of information.
And yes, I can see what you mean buy "omnibus"..! It also gives skewed information..! Storygraph also suggests "A song of Ice and Fire" books to me, because they think I haven't read it, since I haven't read the #1 of a 5 book series. I've read the #1.a and #1.b of a 10 book series.. The portuguese versions aren't "linked" to the originals, since they are thought to not be the same series..!
mariana_mm yes. Even in the USA they will split up long UK books: Magician gets split into Magician Master and Magician Apprentice in the USA, and Sword of Shannara might be split into three in the USA .
Also, regarding Lord of the Rings, it is available in single book form, which is how I read it last year.