By 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 book that was really important to you. Fiction is cataloged by author and title, not by subject or plot line, which makes identifying books by just their storyline difficult. Readers often ask librarians for help finding these kinds of books. And we can’t figure out the mystery every single time, but we do have a few tricks to
help find the answer. First, pin down everything you can remember about 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 book. Online resources can help with your search for a half-remembered book, even if all you have is a basic plot line. Searching yourself is a good place to start; 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! Try Google! Type in everything you 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 Always Be Worseby Margot Zemach.) You can also try googling one key detail you remember from a book. One of our librarians solved a book mystery by searching “USS You-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.) What’s the Name of That Book? Name That Book The Fiction_L listserv Reddit’s whatsthatbook thread "Stump the Bookseller" blog Big Book Search Library Databases (log in with your library card)
How to Move OnSometimes, it's just not going to happen, and you can't find that elusive book you've been searching for. It's okay! Great news: The world is full of great books! Here are a few ways to find more...
Feel free to leave a comment and tell us about a book you’re trying to remember! Our library staff members will pop in and check it periodically, and readers of this post are welcome to make guesses and suggestions. More Suggestions
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How do you find a book you can't remember the name of on Wattpad?Finding a book you lost on Wattpad can sometimes be both easy and tough.. If you remember the name of the book or author, look up for them in the search bar and there you go!. Incase you don't, go to the activity log on your profile. ... . Look up in your reading lists, if you've added the book there by any chance.. How do you find a book if you forgot the title?Google Books Search
You can quickly view sample pages to ensure that the book you've found is the book you've been looking for. There are several other book databases you can find as well, such as Book Finder, Word Cat, LibraryThing, Book Sleuth, Goodreads, Amazon's Advanced Book Search, and Library of Congress.
How do I find a specific story on Wattpad?There are two easy ways to find stories on Wattpad, through your homepage or through the search bar. Your Wattpad homepage features recommended stories by a variety of Wattpadders and curated stories based on events or trends. The homepage recommendations will change based on your reading habits.
How do you filter tags on Wattpad?Go to your homepage. Under the carousel, click on Content Preferences. On Blocked Tags, click on Edit Tags. Type the tags you want to block from your Homepage recommendations, separating the tags with a space.
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