Thread: How to describe sets of books

I was writing something else on Microsoft Word discussing Christadelphian ideas that I disagree with [and I have no intention of posting this on this forum] when I wrote something like;

"I hitched to Sydney and found a copy of the 1722AD six volume book."

That is I talked about the six volumes by one author on just one subject as one book in six volumes. It occured to me that maybe that is not valid phrasiology. So I asked the Libarian, of the Public Library who was not sure, but she would say "six volume set." So is using the term "Six volume book" in anyway valid? Or am I to be tried & exicuted for phrasing it this way, upsetting strict grammatarians?

If they are a serial publication of a book, for example, that has been published in six volumes, as in Vol. I, Vol. II,... with a common index and table of contents then you are correct in either sense. If it is a book that has been released six times with variations each time then they are editions. If the books were released around a common theme but are not sequential then it is a collection.

Alan