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Have you ever lost track of a favorite book from your childhood because you can’t remember the title or author? Do you have the story on the tip of your tongue? Can you explain the plot, describe the cover, or know the era, but just can’t remember the one detail you need in order to actually find the book? We’ve been there and know exactly how frustrating this can be. Below are a few tips we’ve used when searching for a lost book we love.
Tips to Find a Book When You Don’t Know the Title or Author
If you’re currently suffering from a case of book amnesia, try some of these tricks to see if they can spark your memory and help you remember more than a vague cover image or a quirky side character you loved.
First, Wrack Your Brain for Book Memories
When it comes to finding a book you have only a vague recollection of, you need to fish out everything you can possibly remember about it from your memories. Answer the below questions to see if they help you recover any additional information about your book.
- What did the cover look like? Do you only remember a fuzzy image that’s predominately one color? Even that is a clue! If you think hard, do you remember any elements on it? Was the author’s name in large print, or was the title large? Any of these details can be the difference between success or failure.
- Can you remember a phrase, quote, or a particular paragraph of the book? Sometimes you can remember lines you felt were funny or meaningful or just plain weird. Write them down as best you can for your search. Odds are that same phrase may have stood out to someone else too.
- What can you remember from the plot? Even if you’re not entirely confident, write down what you think you remember. You might find your memory looks something like “boy gets kidnapped. Girl best friend says she’ll find him. I think she becomes a detective at some point or runs into him later in life and they fall in love. The boy may be involved in drugs or something sketchy when she runs into him. I think at one point he wakes up in a dumpster.” Even though you’re not one hundred percent certain, you can try different searches with the elements you think are there and hopefully in one combination, you’ll get a hit. Or, hopefully your details will be close enough that someone else can piece the elements together.
- Can you remember any characters’ names? Remembering one or two of the characters’ names will also be a huge help in your search. Even if they’re side characters and not main characters, write them down.
- What genre was it? If it was fantasy, do you remember any details to narrow it down to a subcategory of fantasy?
- Do you remember any other story-related details, like a city name, street, location, pet, era, etc.?
- Do you remember any details related to publishing? Do you remember whether your school or library that you got the book from often bought books from a certain publisher? Do you remember when the book was published? For example, if it was a book you read from your childhood, then you know you can exclude any recent publications. Or, perhaps you remember that it was a new book that came out when you were in high school, then you’ll know to look for books published only in those few years. Do you remember any other similar authors that people seemed to also read if they liked the book you’re trying to remember?
Remember to write down as much information as you can, and maybe you’ll remember some more details in the process of finding your lost book.
Google and Other Search Engines
When you first try to search for a forgotten novel, you probably turn to Google or a similar search engine. Unfortunately, your average search may not be able to get you the results you’re looking for. Because of the vast volume of novels with similar plot elements and various SEO tactics and companies skewing the search results to favor their products, unless the book you’re searching for happens to be one of the most popular books of its kind, you’re going to have to do a deep Google.
Let me explain. If you’re looking for a book about mermaids, but you’re definitely not looking for something super popular like Disney’s The Little Mermaid, you may become frustrated that no matter what variation of “mermaid” search terms you try, you still find Little Mermaid results popping up on top because Disney can afford to pay people a lot of money to make sure their products stay on top of the search results.
So when searching for a forgotten novel, you’ll often have to use all the different details you remember from the book with Google’s different search functions. For example, quotations will be your friend to make sure Google doesn’t try to eliminate distinguishing details. The addition symbol will be useful for linking multiple elements into one search. Try using the Advanced Google Search Page with filters like subject, publisher, language, and publication date as well. Another tip is to always check the image results. If you’re on the right track, then sometimes an image result will appear more quickly than general search results. There are other advanced Google search skills that you can give a try too, like excluding specific keywords or using the wildcard operator to guess the name of a character.
Google Books Search
The Google Books Library Project now makes it possible to find books by searching through their text and content. The Books Search reference page also displays book specific information like various covers, tables of content, common terms and phrases, and popular passages from the books. 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. However, if you haven’t been able to find the book you’re looking for with a Google search, you probably don’t have enough information to find it in one of these databases either. If you want to give some of these a try though, these are some of the ones we find the most useful.
- Book Cave: This site has the unique feature of being able to search through a rated books database. So if you know a book was a children’s book, you can avoid any adult rated book. Or if you know it’s an adult rated book you can exclude anything milder.
- The Library of Congress: This the biggest online library in the world and has a search engine capable of combining search parameters with keywords. There’s also an interesting option called “Ask a Librarian” where you can send an email and try asking for help in finding your book.
- Worldcat: Worldcat is a catalog of over 70 thousand libraries in 160 countries. Here you can look for a specific keyword, and you’ll get a list of book titles in various languages. There’s also a “Fiction Finder” section where you can search for a book by a character or place in addition to a keyword.
- Big Book Search: If you can only remember what the cover looks like, try this cover-search tool.
- If you can remember just one word of the title, use the search function 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 as authors’ professions or decades of publication, may also be helpful.
Turn to Reddit or Other Popular Book Forums
Is there anything that the people of the internet don’t know? If computerized searches fail and you need a personalized touch, there are thousands of fellow book lovers out there who would love to help you out. Places like Reddit, Tumblr, Goodreads, and several other bookish forums have book sleuths that seem to be able to solve even the vaguest of mysteries. Reddit in particular has several dedicated sections such as Tip of My Tongue, What’s That Book, Books, and PrintSF for when you can only remember the cover. Just take a scroll through the book section of Reddit to find a thread that best meets your needs. If Reddit isn’t your thing, check out some of these other book forums and groups:
- Goodreads What’s the Name of That Book? is a group that will help solve your book mystery after you’ve done a valiant effort to first find it yourself.
- LibraryThing’s Name That Book is another place where you can post about your forgotten novel. Just follow their instructions and try to wrack your brain for as many details as you can, and fellow readers will do what they can to find your book.
- Stump the Bookseller is a blog run by a cool indie bookstore in Ohio that offers a $4 dollar service to help readers find lost books, specifically childhood books. Plus they have large searchable archives that you may find helpful as well.
- The Fiction_L listserv is another place where you might be able to get some help, although they don’t seem to have a section dedicated exclusively to finding lost books.
Ask Your Own Social Network and Community
Post on all your social networks, reach out to friends from the time when you were reading the book, and ask a local librarian or even old school teachers. You might be surprised to find that your personal community is the missing link needed to find your book. Communities often have similar interests, so the books you enjoyed as a child might be the same books your friends and others in your town also enjoyed and borrowed from the library.
Your own circle may be especially helpful if you can remember the time that you read the book. If you know you read the book in junior high or high school, reach out to your friends from that era and see if they remember anything about the books you were reading back then. If you’re like me, you probably have a whole friendship circle of readers and you probably not only told them about every book you read but also offered to let them read it as well so you could talk about it. You never know what odd memories a person may be able to recall from their past.
When All Else Fails
If you’ve gone through all of these things and still aren’t able to find the elusive book you’re looking for, then you may have to accept that it’s not going to happen or even that you may not be remembering it correctly. I remember one story about a person looking for a particular Danielle Steele book who later realized the book she was looking for was actually by Daniel Silva. These kinds of close but not quite recollections are understandably frustrating because while you’re confident you’re looking for the right thing, in the end you were actually going down the wrong rabbit hole the entire time and may not even have realized it.
Another consideration is whether what you’re looking for is even real. There have also been times in my life that I’ve been convinced something that happened in a dream was real life, and oftentimes my dreams take up various elements of books I’ve read. Could you possibly be remembering a detail wrong or combining several different books from your past? Whatever the case may be, hopefully you can at least be somewhat cheered up by the list of books you’ve uncovered in your search that at least have many similar elements to what you were looking for.
Happy reading!
ex soldier lives on houseboat in arizona, lost half his foot in war has friend owns a bar??
Looking for name and author of book about a woman with two children who takes a housekeeping job on ranch to help look after elderly man suffering from a stoke . Is a harlequin romance book She is hiding out from her ex husband
Fiction. Rich man on vacation with wife and son in South America. They ha e a wreck and wife and son die. He stays close by wreck and lives of the land.
Ok trying to find a book of carols and Christmas songs. It’s a paper back the picture is of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square it’s got a dark background and the tree is the main thing in the picture.
a book about 3 6th graders who are geniuses fighting against some scientist breaking into a museum.
Looking for a children’s book – don’t remember title but on the cover, there is some kids in a homemade airplane either made out of a cardboard box or a crate in the book. The boy smashes his finger in a waffle iron but doesn’t want to tell his friends that’s what happens so he says it was from a sword fight. …
looking for book named 666 about the Rapture ever herd about it
It’s been a long time since I first read a book about werewolf girl who’s pack alpha accused her of killing her mother in childbirth. And she ran into the woods and fell down a hill and was captured, thrown in the dungeon and abused while the alpha was away. When the alpha returned he found out the girl was his mate and roared “What hell happened to my mate?”
I’m looking for a romance book where there are two separate rich families and the daughter of one of the rich families is supposed to married their son but the son doesn’t show up to the wedding so she ends up marrying her dad he isn’t his biological father but still his dad, that’s all I remember.
I’m looking for a book about a high school girl whose bf dies from a car accident and her teacher dies from an allergic reaction and her best friend is the killer
I’ve been looking for these books I read in high school. It was three books I believe about the world basically stop over night. They couldn’t use their vehicles all cars and trucks would not start. Grocery store stopped getting orders. Stuff locked up tight.
I have been looking most of my life for a children’s book that I loved, about a family moving. The youngest child, was, I’m pretty sure, named Candace, and at the end she says “Someday I bite you.”
I’m haunted by a book of short stories that I read in the late 50s or early 60s. Don’t know if young adult or adult book. I believe the collected stories were by one notable author. The stories scared the hell out of me. There were pen and ink drawings in some (all?) of the stories. A particularly memorable drawing was of a horse-drawn carriage in which the driver or the passengers were dead.
I would like to know the author and/or publisher of a children’s story Hinkum and Pinkum, please.
A black author wrote this book .. two best friends… she wanted to have a baby and asked her friend to give her one . Eventually fell
In love
I had a book that my mother gave me which was lost. I have purchased 4 other copies and given them to family members as gifts, which they also have lost. It’s a collection of stories meant for older kids by the story line and contents. Beautiful color plates that have a foreign flavor. I remember a beautiful snow-white bull from one of the plates. The book was the size of a standard history book you would find in a grade school setting. I did some work for a woman in a high-end home and the book I’m speaking of was on a pedestal in her living room with a spotlight above it. The book was probably published in the beginning of the 20th century. Please help, someone must know of this work. I don’t have much time left.
Hi I am looking for a book that is where two kids have a baseball game but one cant go because of a school trip then they decide to break his car and drug his dog so that they can play.
I think this book is by Tim Green but I don’t know.
I am trying to find this book for my friends kids. 🙂
I am looking for a brilliant book by an author who’s first name is Kate about a woman who is called the Queen of Key West and who has a male doll who she dresses in the finest clothes
I’m looking for a book about a woman whose father sold/made bottlebrush trees. Lives alone. Decorates store windows & makes displays of Christmas villages. Lives in the city & travels to a small town to create a village that represents the people/town. Help!
a husband leaves a party with an unknown blond while wife watches and returns alone – probably a serfial killer – I have looked everywhere for this book
Looking for a book where husband leaves a party with an unknown blonde and returns alone – he’s probably a serial killer
I am looking for a book,it’s a high schooler who got into a fight with her classmate…I think the girl’s name is Olivia,after the fight Olivia went to work (she works at a cafe )so the girl’s brother came to get revenge for her sister … But when she saw Olivia he started catching feelings for her …..
Book name, anyone? I saw this on tiktok and can’t seem to find the books name.
when you’re at a freshman party, you feel a little awkward around crowds. You walked through the crowd and sit near an attractive man covered in tattoos.
He sits all alone and exudes danger, but you still want to stay around him.
He is so big he barely fits in his seat, and you’re hyper aware of how close you legs are touching.
Suddenly, everyone falls silent, and you feel blood boiling in your veins.
Before your wolf goes crazy, you stand up and want to leave, but his strong hand grabs you.
I’m looking for a book where it was 3 best friends black women and one was a bbw she meet a guy at the gym, the other was sick and found out her boyfriend had a family
I’m looking for a book about this girl who gets off at an airport and she books a car to drive home but she has to share the car with a guy and they don’t get along at first but then they start to fall in love and the cover was Christmasy themed with two people on the cover
Looking for a book about a young girl,(maybe 13-ish), who loves drawing landscapes. She figures out something about her family drama. (Can’t remember). But she also goes to this 4th of July thin and she meets this boy and dog. She loves this dog she draws it a lot. At some point her and her friends enter a movie contest, and the main character wants to anmati their movie but one her other friends wants to just film it like “Everybody else”. They end up having a falling out over it.
Bonus stuff:
I believe the girl is native American.***
The cover is some landscape thing.
They made the anmation movie about the dog.
She loves drawing in a garden thing.
Please help me!! I’m really trying to find this book, I’m desperate!
I’m looking for a book which either doesn’t have a title or it’s author is unknown. It’s cover is yellow or orange. It has few pages of about 10. It is about Africa initially had no borders. Men and women lived peacefully. Men didn’t rape nor killed their women. Until a white man came. To improve things…
Looking for a book published in Reader’s Digest Condensed Book which was a mystery which would have been in mid60’s. The only thing I can remember is that it had a girl named Lottie or Lotty(?) who did it. Don’t even remember if it was a murder but I did not read many murder mysteries.
My mother in law named my wife Ruann after a charactor in a book from the 1950″s.
Just seeing if any one recalls a book with that charactors name so we know what book it was
I’m looking for a book that had two little girls sitting on a swing. It was an illustrated cover. One of them was Caucasian. The other one was African-American and I believe if I remember correctly, the African-American girl ends up getting cancer. It was a children’s book.
Win back your Ex and make the bond last forever….
Looking for a book.
Maybe a series
the plot couple Man is a CEO of company he secretly marries his assistant they are married for a couple of years then his old girlfriend returns when his wife finds out she is pregnant. She doesnt tell husband as she thinks he wants to get back with old girlfriend. They end up getting divorced and get secretly get remarried when he finds out she is pregnant she is kidnapped. and disappears for several years, they think she is deceased. she losses her memory. has baby. He finds her but she doesnt remember him as she has amnesia, they rekindle their relationship and she remembers him. Ends up pregnant again. Has baby, and something happens that she needs blood and the blood supply at the hospital has been contaminated and her husbands is the only one’s that can save her and he almost dies giving her all his blood. Then they finally live happily ever after. What is the name of the book. I believe it is over 10 to 15 years old.
I’m looking for a book. It’s a romance. They are both at a family function. A family bbq and she gets drunk on margaritas and he sees her suiting on the steps. They know each other. I don’t have much more. Thanks in advance.
Looking for Reading Comprehension IF1012 by Instructional Fair Inc. It also has the Roman Numerals MCMLXXXV Instructional Fair Inc. can any one help me find this book?
sleeping wyrm school kid missing heroine fantasy book, (kids or young adult book?) there was this sorta girl that i think had some factory job idk a worm or something sleeping in the centre of the earth the girl had to eventually slay it i know this book has multiple other books after the first detailing her adventure or quest to become better? and slay the thing the person went missing while the heroine was on a bus trip to school or something? didn’t show up that day? been trying to find this book for ages, the first book ended with the girl going into some forest or something?
Sci-Fi / Fantasy where two people from ancient Ireland get transported to future Ireland and get trapped in IRA terrorist plot
It’s manga it’s about a girl that was reincarnated into a girl that was living with wolf till a man finds her and takes her in. he tattoos the her with a flower on her back to symbolize she is one of his girls she slowly learns how to talk and get along with the other girls
Science Fiction about finding an abandoned space ship which is spherical. With the new technology they become the strongest faction on Earth because they can track any target, anywhere on the planet. The study of the the tech is only allowed on the far side of the Moon. I seem to remember this from 40+ years ago. Any help would be appreciated.
This is a story I’m looking for, it’s about this boy who (tw) ||dies from an accident|| and he has to help his sister who has been (tw again) ||raped|| by their uncle. As the boy is a spirit, he doesn’t know what to do, but he tries so hard, he figures out how to go into dreams and thoughts, so he went to his wife and warned her, and told his sister in thought to tell their mom and dad. I think his grandma or guide helped him out with it too?? But idk he ends up helping her to justice in the end. I need to know what that book is.
hi I’m looking for a book i forgot the name but the plot is interesting .the woman goes back to her hometown on hiatus from writing a novel to find inspiration when she stumbles into her high school crush. she’s also friends with his sister .at the end of the book they move in together but there’s a knock on the door its the boyfriends ex and she says she’s pregnant.
My son thinks the book might have been
“To kill a Mockingbird”.
I’m not so sure, but I believe it was a popular old classic..?!
It was a pretty old book, I’m thinking maybe written in the 1930’s?!
It was a paperback book, not very thick,
Maybe a light matte gray color,
easy to read but kinda boring.
That’s why we don’t remember a lot about it. Seems like it was written on an old typewriter.
I remember a lot of cussing in the book.
My son remembers the word nigger being used a lot.
Would really like to remember the title so I can know for sure whether or not we read
“To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Thank you
It’s about a young girl that lives with her mother’s relatives. She is going to die in about six months. She hears a man saying to a woman I only have three rules that you need to abide by. Never tell me that you love me. He is a prince in his own country but he is higher than the king and queen. He’s a vampire. There are witches in it. In order to save her life he chooses to die to save her but she has to stab him. They go to a funeral fair and she wins him a soft toy a jellyfish and she wins him a lamb. After he is stabbed he forgets all about the young lady. She doesn’t give up on him. They first met thousands of years ago and she used to be the last dragon keeper.
Looking for this book
“ You had a one-night stand with the alpha of your pack. Afterward, he chose a stronger she-wolf over you.
Now you’re trying to hide your growing belly from him. Unable to bear seeing him with someone else, you ran away from the pack. Now you’re alone in the woods.. where you gave birth, enduring unbearable pain until you eventually blacked out.
When you woke up, you found yourself in a fancy bedroom, feeling weak and terrified.
The alpha king himself held your child. Please you croaked don’t hurt my baby. You braced for the worst but to your surprise he spoke softly. Hush my dear wofie he said gently no one will ever harm you again . You and our baby are safe with me now. ”
One Night Stand with the Alpha King
Author: itsmemaryposa
I’m looking for a book I bought at the Dollar Tree around 2017 – 2018. It’s got a light blue dust jacket or cover. I remember an owl design maybe . The book was about an older lady who was suffering from dimentia or memory loss that was just starting. Her son hired a caregiver to come in and live with her. The old woman was suspicious of the caregiver and I remember her accusing her of stealing a box of postcards , sea shells , or something similar. The caregiver had dug a hole out by the beach behind the house and put her in it to see if she was able to climb out. I think she was planning to leave her for dead. She took the woman’s savings, but i believe her boyfriend was behind it , because she felt bad. After she took the old gals money, I can’t remember if she actually left her in the hole, or what, but she felt so guilty, she waded out into the sea to drown herself.
What is name of book title of (Elizabeth Shafer,2005)
I am looking for a book about Wicca, Greek mythology ,Astrology, and the new age.(I don’t know title and author) The book is about the 72 faces of men and women (White, yellow and black faces described in precise details) I think it is related to astrology, mythology, wicca, and the new age?I read it in 2003.They appear in movies and media as three girl(white,yellow,and black).They resemble the British band Sugababes.
Years ago, while working as a teacher at a camp in Maine, I came across a novel which was Victorian in style. It was about two senior women who found themselves stranded on an island after their ship sunk. They encountered a strange group of residents living there. The residents were helpful. All I can remember is that it was one of the most hilarious books I’d ever read, causing my to laugh out loud at the personalities and antics of the residents. One particular instance was when a cart in which they were riding lost control and they went barreling along a path only to overturn and send everyone sprawling. I wish I could re-read this novel, which I found in 1981.
I’m looking for a book it’s cover says secrets and the two protagonist was an animated there are group of boys named “storm” which means sky,taiki,orpheus,ryujin,and myujin i think and the girl was known as Jay but her real name was Sachico Nura Shin she’s Taiki’s little sister
Looking for book about a group of friends go their own way after high school one couple is having a baby and the mother dies during labor and one dies at a party
A nonfiction book about a mom helping her young son transition to a girl. She came home to her boy tied to a chair and decided to leave and help her son. set in the pacific northwest. It is not the book “This is how it always is” by Frankell.
I am looking for a novel that I read sometime last year about a gay couple who are convinced by an old friend from school to let her be a surrogate mother for them. At first, she seems perfect. In school she was extremely overweight and now she has become very voluptuous and beautiful, until she is actually pregnant. Then, she gains an enormous amount of weight back and does nothing but lie around and eat. She is absolutely bonkers, and the couple even buy her a house so that she can move out of her apartment in New York City. She has a boyfriend who is pscho and on drugs, and he ends up killing one of the men.
a book about 2 siblings that were teleported to another world through a water fountain
Looking for a romantic mystery about a brit rock band a bit like the beatles and the stones. The lead singer rescues his toddler daughter from her junkie mom. The band and later his wife take care of her. The mystery is someone murders his wife and new son and the girl is consumed with quilt. The band members are well drawn and memorable. 80s ish.
Hi, I’m looking for a book from 1980’s early 1990’s. I bought it for my daughter from her school book club. It was about two little kids getting lost in the woods. I remember a picture of the kids sitting under a tall tree, I don’t remember if this was on the front cover of the book or if it was the last page. They never found their way out, I know it sounds awful, but she loved this book,
hi i’m looking for this one manga i read a while ago, i remember some about it but i don’t remember the name. it’s a girl and her brother, they have to go to some kind of mansion because of their family and the girls brother is mean to her so the guy who owns the place and he’s like the boss of everybody there, he puts a curse on her brother where he slowly turns into a rat.
Hi
Looking for a book called the world of the unexplained and it had a big silver ufo on the front and it was like an encyclopaedia of the worlds mysteries and was written I believe in the late 80’s and actually wrote about it in school in the uk I did find it in a charity shop in Chingford UK BUT UNFORTUNATELY lost it as I moved home please can someone help me find it
Thanks
I am looking for a book from the 1980s about a babysitter/nanny named Kate who is hired to watch a little girl named Jessica. Jessica has recently witnessed a hit and run and the driver knows she saw his car.
He begins to make creepy phone calls to her house, reciting ominous nursery rhymes.
Other details: Kate is a graduate student studying Jane Austen and there are Pride & Predujice references throughout.
Also, Jessica has an uncle named Adam? who hires Kate
It was light horror.
Please help if you know the title!
I’ve just seen a Japanese film called perfect days .
The man who plays the protagonist has a book called TREE but I didn’t get the author .
I would love to find out what that book was .
https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/comments/1806g3u/help_which_books_and_authors_are_mentioned_in/ book is tree by aya koda it’s japanese from the comments?