Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I need your help trying to untangle this problem.

Somebody just added a bunch of additional series to this book: Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot #15) (Araidne Oliver, #2) (Superintendent Battle, #3).

Poirot is the main character in this book and the rest are just secondary characters so they shouldn't count as part of the series information.
--Ms. Oliver is usually Poirot's sidekick (with the exception of one book The Pale Horse where she's by herself)
--Superintendent Battle has a few books where he's the main character but this is definitely not one of them.
--Colonel Race also stars in a few books but when he's with Poirot, he's definitely not the main character.

I want to delete all this info - it just makes the book too messy but I want to make sure it's not added back. How do I go about it? Add a librarian's note?

It says characters, not main characters, so I think they should stay there, but we can clean up the series.

Is this the ONLY series this book is included in?
http://www.goodreads.com/series/51138...

P.S. We can contact the librarian that did this and ask him not to touch it. As well as adding librarian note.

I would suggest revert the last changes from the librarian log, but lets wait for Rivka or Vickey or ... someone else.

I wouldn't completely get rid of it as yet. There is certainly some utility in knowing which "subseries" this book belongs to. Personally, I would prefer to remove the information from the title field, but that is personal preference. Also, Araidne should be Ariadne, but that is a minor point.

I see that Vicky is the one who made the changes and given that she is a super, I would be very reluctant to undo her changes without contacting her first about it.

Yes, those are fine staying as characters but they shouldn't be part of the series info.

Yes, "Cards on The Table" should only be included as part of the Poirot series.

In general, most of Mrs. Christie's books can be read as standalones - even if it's book 17 in the series - so adding all info is extraneous and unnecessary.

Monique wrote: "I wouldn't completely get rid of it as yet. There is certainly some utility in knowing which "subseries" this book belongs to. Personally, I would prefer to remove the information from the title ..."

I was looking at the name changes and that was not Vicky. :)

This is not a sub-series of any kind. Those are just secondary characters who happen to have a book on their own here and there.

Superintendent Battle and Colonel Race are not even mentioned in the official Agatha Christie website. http://www.agathachristie.com/christi...

Adding all this information may end up being more confusing because Mrs. Christie wrote books with these people over 50 years and you won't find there's a 'right way' to read the series in order.

Monique wrote: "I see that Vicky is the one who made the changes and given that she is a super, I would be very reluctant to undo her changes without contacting her first about it."

No, it wasn't me, it was the edit under me.

I was trying to see if putting the extra comma in the Hercule Poirot, #15 would get the series title to overwrite the whole list of series titles, but it didn't. :P



My opinion is to leave the series as they are and remove the extra series from the title so only the primary series (in this case Poirot) remains in the title. I think the sub series are valuable information for someone reading these books and I wouldn't want to see that deleted. Though I must admit I've never read a Christie book in my life, this is just based on the bit of research I've just done.

I would love to see whatever definition of subseries would apply in this instance. What next, a subseries for every "in Death" book that has Mavis in it? Surely there's a better way of providing this information, like the characters field? I'm usually in favor or providing as much info as possible, but I have to agree with those who think this is overkill. Especially having them numbered. These characters have no story arcs, there is no reason whatsoever to have their books numbered.

I can tell you...I've read almost all of Mrs. Christie's books (some of them multiple times) and with just a few exceptions, the books can be read almost as standalones. Mrs. Christie didn't develop story arcs for her main detectives. With the exception of the Tommy and Tuppence series (in which they start young and then grow old), her detectives people are almost the same age in all the books in the series. There's almost never nothing new about them and you get to meet them all over again in each book.

Some books mention previous cases but with no spoilers so it's not as if you find out the killer of previous cases.

Vicky wrote: "Monique wrote: "I see that Vicky is the one who made the changes and given that she is a super, I would be very reluctant to undo her changes without contacting her first about it."

No, it wasn't ..."

My bad, Vicky. I clearly read the librarian changelog incorrectly.

I would have to agree with those who say that there is only one series here, with a stretch to say Ariadne Oliver as well. I honestly feel that if I wanted to know all the books that Col. Race was in, I'd use the characters field, not the series field. Christie herself seems to have viewed herself as writing Miss Marple and Poirot series, then the separate linked ones like Tommy and Tuppence, but not the others mentioned as series...

Adding all this series info makes it seem as if you have to read all these books before getting to 'Cards on the Table' which is really not the case.

Emy wrote: "I would have to agree with those who say that there is only one series here"

I agree. The others should not be series. Rather, that's what the characters list is for.

So how do we go about fixing the problem? Is there an easier way than re-editing all these books?

D.G. wrote: "So how do we go about fixing the problem? Is there an easier way than re-editing all these books?"

Depends.

No, If the series are in the title field, just the long way.
Yes, If the series are only entered in the Series fields - deleting the series / books from the series will work then.

No, If the series are in the title field, just the long way.
Yes, If the s..."

I was looking at the librarian log for the name changes. Reverting would be easier for the names, then manual editing. But maybe I read the log wrong, cause I can't really always understand it. Hopefully it is ok to post the link.

You could do that if you can find the entry where it changes from the correct series entry/entries to the incorrect one. In this case that was right the way down at the bottom of the page... Didn't do the revert myself yet as didn't want to cause and overlap...