Talk:Books
Hmmm, this is one of our mentioned Project:Slippery slopes, I'm not sure we want a list of all the possible travel books-- would it really be helpful? Maybe this is different than what I think it is, in which case it'd at least need a different article name "Books" is just to general. (WT-en) Majnoona 18:14, 20 Feb 2004 (EST)
- As long as it is useful to somebody, I think it is good. (WT-en) Yann 18:42, 20 Feb 2004 (EST)
- That's not the metric we use for what kind of articles to include in Wikivoyage. I think recommending particular books for particular travel destinations is a good idea, but I'm pretty much sure this article is too broad to be useful. --(WT-en) Evan 02:47, 21 Feb 2004 (EST)
- What do you propose, then? (WT-en) Yann 08:32, 21 Feb 2004 (EST)
Seems like this died a few years ago! Perhaps the way to go is to have a list of all possible travel books and then have pointers to these books in individual travel pages. An entry in the list could read:
- Theroux, Paul, "The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train through Asia," Penguin, 1995. Paul Theroux writes about his travels by rail througn .........
The format will be well controlled, the description does not have to be repeated ad nauseum in individual travel pages. Then, in say the India page, the Myanmar page, the Chennai page, the Pyin U Lwin page, we could include a link to the book in a section entitled "Read."--(WT-en) Wandering 14:29, 22 May 2007 (EDT)
- "All possible travel books" is a mighty long list. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 16:10, 22 May 2007 (EDT)
- Indeed! But so is an encyclopaedia of everything! Gotta start somewhere.--(WT-en) Wandering 10:53, 23 May 2007 (EDT)
- Yeah, but that's not this project. :) And nobody's trying to put Wikipedia on a single page; the information is parceled out into articles by subject. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 21:53, 24 May 2007 (EDT)
We actually do have something similar... Special:Booksources. But instead of us having to create/maintain/police a monstrous index page of the books it directs people where to go to buy the books. See Afghanistan#Read for an example. The description would go straight into the article, and the title is linked with Booksource. Does that satisfy your desires? I also asked about doing a similar Moviesource, but nobody it hasn't really gained any momentum yet – (WT-en) cacahuate talk 16:30, 22 May 2007 (EDT)
- To add one to an article, use [[Special:Booksources/0864426046|A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush]], replacing the appropriate ISBN# and book title – (WT-en) cacahuate talk 16:33, 22 May 2007 (EDT)
- You can also simply include an ISBN in the text (e.g. "ISBN 156097432X") and the site software will link it to book sources. This has the advantage of showing the ISBN in the article if the reader wants to order it offline. Getting back to the issue of repeating the same book recommendation in multiple articles, the ideal solution to this is to recommend a book about traveling through Asia in the Asia article, rather than in each of the countries the book covers. If someone is traveling to multiple countries in Asia, they should look at that article, and if they're only traveling in Myanmar or going just to Pyin U Lwin, it's probably not an ideal book for them. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 17:44, 22 May 2007 (EDT)
- Not so in the case of the Theroux book. It is useful reading if you travel by rail in Asia, or if you just go to Pyin U Lwin. Either way, it would be recommended reading. Another example is Tiziano Terzani's "A Fortune Teller Told Me." Could easily go in multiple places and should be recommended reading even if you travel just to, say, HK.--(WT-en) Wandering 10:53, 23 May 2007 (EDT)
- I don't doubt that there are examples like that, but for most people the background information about the specific place they're going would have to be exceptionally good to justify buying and reading a book about an entire continent. And if they're thirsty enough for information to do that... don't you think they'd also look at the Wikivoyage articles further up in the hierarchy? - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 21:51, 24 May 2007 (EDT)
I'm not dogmatic about this but do feel that the perfect travel resource should have a good way for dealing with books and movies &c because they are an essential part of the romance of travel. Meanwhile, I'll plug in ISBN numbers and see if I can figure out Booksources.--(WT-en) Wandering 10:53, 23 May 2007 (EDT)
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