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Finding a Book When You've Forgotten Its Title

Past

Gwen Glazer, Librarian

November 22, 2017

It can be tough to remember the title and author of a book you read a long time ago—even if it was a volume that was really of import to yous. Fiction is cataloged by writer and championship, not by subject area or plot line, which makes identifying books by just their storyline hard.

Readers often ask librarians for help finding these kinds of books. And we can't effigy out the mystery every single time, merely nosotros practice have a few tricks to assistance detect the reply.

Offset, pin down everything you can call back about the book, plot, grapheme names, fourth dimension period in which the book may take been published, genre, etc. All these details are clues in identifying the title and author of the volume.

Online resource can help with your search for a one-half-remembered volume, fifty-fifty if all you lot have is a basic plot line. Searching yourself is a adept place to first; and then, you can post to a listserv or discussion forum, where someone might recognize it. Or, last but not least, leave a comment on this post!

Earlier You lot Start

Try Google! Blazon in everything you tin remember about the volume — as in, "picture book rabbi animals communication yiddish" — and scroll through the results. (That's a real-life instance of a book a patron was asking for:It Could Always Be Worsepast Margot Zemach.)

Y'all tin can also endeavor googling one fundamental particular you remember from a book. One of our librarians solved a volume mystery by searching "USS You-Know-Who" — the name of a boat in the story that the patron happened to think. (Some other existent-life example: She Flew No Flagsby Joan Manley.)

Crowdsourcing

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

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

• The Fiction_L listserv
  Stumpers! Search archives of past questions, answered past an intense volume-ish community, or subscribe and post a new one.

• Reddit's whatsthatbook thread
  A nearly endless thread of users trying to aid other users call back volume 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 $iv service for personalized help. Lots of children'due south books here.

• Big Book Search
  If you can only remember what the cover looks like, effort this cover-search tool.

Library Databases (log in with your library menu)

• Books & Authors

• Books in Print

• The New York Times databases

• NoveList and NoveList G-8 (in-library utilize simply)

How to Move On

Sometimes, information technology'southward simply not going to happen, and y'all can't find that elusive book you've been searching for. It's okay! Peachy news: The world is full of great books! Here are a few ways to notice 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.
  
• If you lot'd like a personalized recommendation, observe united states of america on Twitter or fill out our What Should I Read Adjacent? e-mail course.
  
• Want a brand-new read? Check out our favorite New and Noteworthy titles.

Feel complimentary to go out a annotate and tell us about a book you're trying to remember! Our library staff members will pop in and check information technology periodically, and readers of this post are welcome to brand guesses and suggestions.

More Suggestions

• If you tin can call back merely one word, use the search function on Goodreads or Library Affair to find long lists of titles with a detail give-and-take.

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

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

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Source: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/11/22/finding-book-forgotten-title?page=2

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