Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

What do you do vis a vis page numbering when a book starts on page 12 and ends on page 220. Is the page number 220 or 209.

What do you do if the book includes pages in the beginning that are marked with roman numerals. Again do you add them to the total pages in the book

Jeffrey wrote: "What do you do vis a vis page numbering when a book starts on page 12 and ends on page 220. Is the page number 220 or 209."

220.


Jeffrey wrote: "What do you do if the book includes pages in the beginning that are marked with roman numerals. Again do you add them to the total pages in the book"

No.


In both cases, it's because we don't want to require people to do arithmetic to be able to enter the current page number.

I understand, but I object in general to the publishing trick of starting shorter books at a page number other than 1 so that the book does not seem as short as it really is.

I think the reasons are more complex than that. Regardless, this is GR policy.

A book starting on page 12 is nothing. I picked up my son's copy of More Information Than You Require and saw that it started with something like page 229! In City of Saints and Madmen, the page numbering starts over several times. There's no way the number of pages in a book will always be right.