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Finding a Book When You've Forgotten Its Championship

Past

Gwen Glazer, Librarian

November 22, 2017

Information technology can be tough to recall the championship and author of a volume you read a long time ago—fifty-fifty if it was a book that was really important to you. Fiction is cataloged by writer and title, non by subject or plot line, which makes identifying books by but their storyline difficult.

Readers oftentimes ask librarians for assist finding these kinds of books. And we can't effigy out the mystery every single fourth dimension, but we do accept a few tricks to assistance discover the respond.

Commencement, pivot down everything y'all tin can retrieve almost the book, plot, character names, time menstruation in which the book may have been published, genre, etc. All these details are clues in identifying the title and writer of the volume.

Online resources can help with your search for a one-half-remembered volume, even if all yous have is a bones plot line. Searching yourself is a expert place to starting time; then, you can postal service to a listserv or word forum, where someone might recognize it. Or, last merely not least, leave a comment on this post!

Before You Start

Endeavour Google! Type in everything you can recollect about the book — as in, "picture book rabbi animals communication yiddish" — and scroll through the results. (That'due south a real-life example of a book a patron was asking for:It Could Always Be Worseby Margot Zemach.)

You tin can also try googling one cardinal detail you remember from a volume. One of our librarians solved a volume mystery past searching "USS Yous-Know-Who" — the name of a boat in the story that the patron happened to remember. (Another real-life example: She Flew No Flagsby Joan Manley.)

Crowdsourcing

• What'southward the Proper name of That Book?
  A Goodreads group 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 aid solve book mysteries via threaded discussions.

• The Fiction_L listserv
  Stumpers! Search athenaeum of by questions, answered by an intense volume-ish customs, or subscribe and post a new 1.

• Reddit's whatsthatbook thread
  A nearly endless thread of users trying to help other users remember volume titles, including several oft requested books. Especially proficient for science fiction and fantasy.

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

• Large Book Search
  If yous can only recollect what the cover looks similar, try this cover-search tool.

Library Databases (log in with your library bill of fare)

• Books & Authors

• Books in Print

• The New York Times databases

• NoveList and NoveList K-viii (in-library employ merely)

How to Move On

Sometimes, information technology's just not going to happen, and yous can't observe that elusive book you've been searching for. It'due south okay! Peachy news: The world is full of great books! Hither are a few means to detect more...

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

Feel free to leave a comment and tell us about a book yous're trying to remember! Our library staff members will popular in and check it periodically, and readers of this post are welcome to make guesses and suggestions.

More Suggestions

• If you can remember just ane word, apply the search office on Goodreads or Library Thing to find long lists of titles with a particular word.

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

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

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

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