Shared books

In the section that shows how many books I share with other users it shows (for example) that I share 229 books with user 'antimuzak'. If I click on his name it then shows (as you would expect) that he shares 229 books with me. However, if I click on the number in the section it comes up with a list of the 485 books I share with that user. Could anyone explain please?

It's a books/works issue. There are some works you share where one or the other of you has multiple copies, and those get counted multiple times in generating the library section (where you're seeing the "485" number).

That produces an interesting asymmetry:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Mouldywarp&compare=antimuzak

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/antimuzak&compare=Mouldywarp

The first of these has 288 books, the second 485. Antimuzak has many copies of, for instance, the Jane Austen books -- each of those counts as "shared" in that section. For cases where you BOTH have multiple copies, like Sense and Sensibility, the effect is multiplicative, and has been called the "42 Quixotes bug."

Many thanks for that!

It's curious that the first library mentioned in the 42 Quixotes bug i.e. antimuzak, is the same user mentioned in the OP here. Coincidence???

ETA: And apparently the bug has been fixed according to the 2 threads relating to it.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/12657
http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=18034