Goodreads Developers discussion

There doesn't seem to be a way to do this in the API (title, author, series, etc.) - am I missing something?

Secondarily, what separates a Work ID from a Book ID exactly?

The basic book/show/ API call returns XML containing the title and author info. There is also a tag called "series_works" which contains the series info that you are looking for. Series are made up of works which have a "best book" which is representative of that work.

A Work refers to the abstract version of a book that isn't tied to any particular edition or translation. Works are associated with one or more Book IDs. Works also have a "best book" which librarians consider to be a good representative edition.

For example, the best book for War and Peace has book ID 656, which refers to a 1998 edition from Oxford University, translated by specific people. The "work" War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy has work ID 4912783 and there are 137 different editions of this book in Goodreads.

jeff wrote: "The basic book/show/ API call returns XML containing the title and author info. There is also a tag called "series_works" which contains the series info that you are looking for. Series are made up..."

Awesome, that clarified things a lot. Is there also a way to get a book's description?

EDIT: Sorry, just noticed book/show/ also gives that.