Biblio File

Finding a Book When You've Forgotten Its Title

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Library books lined up on a shelf Check out selected results from NYPL Title Quest 2019, held August two, 2019, every bit well every bit Championship Quest 2018.

This is an update of a previous mail service past Sharon Rickson.

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

Readers frequently ask librarians for help finding these kinds of books. And we can't figure out the mystery every single time, only we do take a few tricks to help notice the reply.

Beginning, pin down everything y'all tin can remember near the book, plot, character names, time period in which the book may have been published, genre, etc. All these details are clues in identifying the title and author of the volume.

Online resource tin help with your search for a half-remembered volume, even if all you have is a basic plot line. Searching yourself is a good place to offset; so, yous can post to a listserv or give-and-take forum, where someone might recognize it. Or, last but not least, exit a comment on this mail!

Before You Start

Attempt Google! Type in everything you tin recollect about the book — equally in, "picture volume rabbi animals communication yiddish" — and ringlet through the results. (That'southward a real-life example of a book a patron was request for: It Could Always Exist Worse by Margot Zemach.)

Y'all can also endeavor googling i key detail you retrieve from a book. One of our librarians solved a book mystery past searching "USS You-Know-Who" — the proper name of a gunkhole in the story that the patron happened to remember. (Some other existent-life example: She Flew No Flags by Joan Manley.)

Crowdsourcing

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

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

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

  • Reddit'southward whatsthatbook thread
    A nearly endless thread of users trying to help other users remember volume titles, including several frequently requested books. Peculiarly good for science fiction and fantasy.

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

  • Big Volume Search
    If yous can only remember what the embrace looks like, try this cover-search tool.

Library Databases (log in with your library carte du jour)

  • Books & Authors

  • Books in Print

  • The New York Times databases

  • NoveList and NoveList K-8 (in-library apply just)

More Suggestions

  • If y'all can call back just one word, utilise the search function on Goodreads or Library Thing to observe long lists of titles with a item word.

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

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

How to Move On

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

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

Feel free to leave a comment and tell us about a book you lot're trying to think! Our library staff members volition popular in and check it periodically, and readers of this post are welcome to brand guesses and suggestions.