Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Is there a reason Kindle locations can't be used in lieu of page numbers? The FAQ suggests that most ebooks don't use page numbers because of the impacts of dynamic pagination, however Kindle location numbers exist specifically to avoid that issue.

My thought here is that this would provide a meaningful way of comparing book sizes (at least against other kindle versions). Sure, it's not an exact science, but then neither is comparing page numbers for physical editions :)

I know I'd much prefer entering /something/ in to that page number field than leaving it blank when I'm adding new books

I really like that idea. It's very hard to determine short story vs novella vs full length book for many books that are only released electronically. This would be very helpful.

I tried using textbooks on my iPad and ran into problems when my professor was telling us to turn to a page. It was a nightmare and from now on I stick to paper.

The right place for suggestions like this is the Feedback group http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...

I wasn't of the opinion this was a feature request. It seems more a matter of policy given that the ability to enter the location ID in the pages field is already in place

Yes, this is a policy decision: to put the Kindle locations in the page number field, the way we put the hours for audiobooks in the page number field now.

However, the problem is that some of the newer Kindle editions do have actual page numbers assigned (based on a print edition of the book, I think?), so it might be confusing since there's no way to tell whether the number means page or location. (I know location numbers tend to be much higher than page numbers, but it's not unheard of to have a series or set of books put out as one giant Kindle book, so it wouldn't be impossible for page numbers to be large enough to look like location numbers.)

I know amazon sometimes lists page numbers on the kindle store, but that's the page number count of a reference physical edition of the book. Are you saying that there are kindle books now that actually have a page number count directly listed in their metadata? 'Cause that does somewhat blow the idea out of the water...

Cyron wrote: "Are you saying that there are kindle books now that actually have a page number count directly listed in their metadata?"

Well, mine doesn't, but apparently it's been added to new Kindle readers (and some newer published editions).

Kindle books definitely do have page numbers that are able to be displayed on the 3rd generation keyboard model and all subsequent models.

The page numbed are normally linked back to a print edition that is listed on thd amazon book page

They do a pretty good job of estimating page Count on books with no print equivalent

Ah well, back to the drawing board then :)

Both kindle and nook, specifically in response to major outcries from textbook users, are working on getting everything to have real page numbers. (Not trying to leave out google books, ibooks, smashwords, etc.--just not sure what they are/aren't doing).

In the meantime, the style manuals schools use are catching up to how to cite the ebook locations/percentages in acceptable formats.

The file size of any ebook or kindle edition would be pretty useless to enter (although sometimes shown on amazon and sites downloading from) because almost always would include extraneous pages (not normally included in a book's page count) like a ton of samples of authors other works, table of contents (usually numbered "i, ii, ..." types of pages), the kindle blurbs to share that you've finished, click for more by this author, etc.--not usually a part of the hardcopy or regular page numbering scheme.

The chapter metadata being tested should help at least the book discussions here on goodreads follow along regardless of edition/format of book.