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Finding a Book When You lot've Forgotten Its Title

By

Gwen Glazer, Librarian

Nov 22, 2017

Library books lined up on a shelf

Information technology tin can exist tough to recall the title and writer of a volume you read a long fourth dimension agone—even if information technology was a book that was really important to y'all. Fiction is cataloged by author and title, not by bailiwick or plot line, which makes identifying books by merely their storyline difficult.

Readers often ask librarians for help finding these kinds of books. And we tin can't figure out the mystery every single fourth dimension, but we do have a few tricks to help find the answer.

Outset, pin down everything you can recall about the book, plot, character names, fourth dimension period in which the volume may have been published, genre, etc. All these details are clues in identifying the title and author of the volume.

Online resources can assistance with your search for a half-remembered volume, even if all yous have is a bones plot line. Searching yourself is a proficient identify to commencement; and then, yous tin can post to a listserv or discussion forum, where someone might recognize information technology. Or, last but not to the lowest degree, leave a annotate on this post!

Before You Start

Try Google! Type in everything y'all can remember about the book — as in, "picture book rabbi animals advice yiddish" — and scroll through the results. (That's a real-life example of a book a patron was asking for:It Could Ever Exist Worseby Margot Zemach.)

You can as well try googling i key detail you retrieve from a volume. 1 of our librarians solved a volume mystery by searching "USS Yous-Know-Who" — the name of a boat in the story that the patron happened to remember. (Another real-life instance: She Flew No Flagspast Joan Manley.)

Crowdsourcing

  • What's the Name of That Book?
    A Goodreads grouping with searchable discussion posts and thousands of questions and answers.

  • Proper noun That Book
    A LibraryThing group of ~3K members — many of whom are librarians or library-adjacent — who assist solve book mysteries via threaded discussions.

  • The Fiction_L listserv
    Stumpers! Search archives of by questions, answered by an intense book-ish customs, or subscribe and mail a new one.

  • Reddit's whatsthatbook thread
    A virtually endless thread of users trying to help other users remember book titles, including several frequently requested books. Especially good for science fiction and fantasy.

  • "Stump the Bookseller" blog
    A cool indie bookstore in Ohio that maintains extensive, searchable archives — and offers a $4 service for personalized help. Lots of children's books here.

  • Large Book Search
    If y'all can simply recall what the cover looks like, try this embrace-search tool.

Library Databases (log in with your library carte)

  • Books & Authors

  • Books in Print

  • The New York Times databases

  • NoveList and NoveList K-8 (in-library employ only)

How to Move On

Sometimes, information technology'south just not going to happen, and you can't find that elusive book you've been searching for. Information technology's okay! Great news: The world is full of great books! Here are a few ways to find more...

  • Check out recommendations from our volume experts here at NYPL. We offer suggestions via blog posts, the Staff Picks book finder, The Librarian Is In podcast, and more than.
  • If you'd like a personalized recommendation, notice us on Twitter or fill out our What Should I Read Next? email form.
  • Want a brand-new read? Cheque out our favorite New and Noteworthy titles.

Experience free to exit a comment and tell us nearly a book you're trying to remember! Our library staff members volition pop in and cheque it periodically, and readers of this post are welcome to make guesses and suggestions.

More than Suggestions

  • If y'all can remember just one word, use the search function on Goodreads or Library Thing to find long lists of titles with a item discussion.

  • Goodreads' browse-able lists of titles that readers have shelved in unique categories, such as authors' professions or decades of publication, is also be helpful.

  • For recently published books, the reviews in Booklist Online are broken down past detailed genre.

lewisyoully.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/11/22/finding-book-forgotten-title?page=4

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