Is lithium bicarbonate an aqueous solution of lithium carbonate? This question is related to:


Are Lithium bicarbonate and​ Magnesium bicarbonate both soluble in water?
What type of chemical reaction is this?
How can bromine water be called a solution?


In the first question, the page from JD Lee (Concise Inorganic Chemistry 5 ed) states:


  Lithium is exceptional that it does not form that it does not form a solid bicarbonate, though $\ce{LiHCO3}$ exists in solution. All the carbonates and bicarbonate are soluble in water.


and then in the sideline(the most important line):


  If it exists in water, it must definitely be soluble in water.


Now, Lithium carbonate is prepared by bubbling $\ce{CO2}$ gas to a solution of lithium hydroxide, $\ce{LiOH}$.(source)

$$\ce{2LiOH + CO2 → (Li2CO3 + H2O)}$$

But in another source (endmemo), it shows that lithium hydroxide and carbon dioxide directly combines to form lithium bicarbonate.

$$\ce{LiOH + CO2 -&gt; LiHCO3}$$

So, basically lithium bicarbonate is aqueous solution of lithium carbonate. Isn't it? 

Now, what I gather from the fact that lithium carbonate is soluble in water and form a solution where the components do not react with each other. However, when the two reaction are compared, we observe that lithium carbonate reacts with water to form lithium bicarbonate. It seems contradictory with the above statement. How is this possible?

In the 3rd question, I said that if bromine reacts with water to form a mixture of acids, how can it be called a solution? Components of solution do not react with each other. Same case goes on with this reaction. If lithium carbonate is in aqueous solution, it should dissociate into component ions i.e $\ce{Li+}$ and $\ce{CO3^2-}$ but instead it goes on form $\ce{LiHCO3}$ and thus the solution has $\ce{Li+}$ and $\ce{HCO3-}$ ions. Why?
Lithium bicarbonate solution is something like a lithium carbonate solution in the sense that precipitation would produce the carbonate instead of the bicarbonate.  But what is in solution is mostly lithium and bicarbonate ions.  Precipitation is accompanied by a reaction in which the highly polarizing lithium ions react with bicarbonate:

$2\ce {Li+}+2\ce {HCO_3-}\rightarrow \ce {Li2CO_3}(s)+\ce {H2O}+\ce {CO2}$

Other alkali metals give less polarizing ions and do not react in the same way; they just precipitate the bicarbonate salt.