(READ FIRST) Book Search Requests

[Danny McG]

This isn't a forum to ask for recommendations for stories, novels and book series. And it is meant as a public service, not a quiz game!

We welcome requests for stories' names and authors to but to help us with your query please try to provide as much information as possible:

## Questions must have as much detail as possible, including:

• Media (short story collection, magazine, novel, website)
• Original year of publication/airing, or at least when you have read/seen this work of fiction. "Read when I was a child" is not as useful as "Read when I was a child (early 1980s)"
• Major themes
• Plot (as much as you can remember)
• Setting
• Characters (names, descriptions)
• The language you read or heard the story in
• Details about the cover, if applicable
• Target audience/age group
• Ideas that you have already ruled out (for example, if you know the story was not written by Asimov, then tell us so that we can save time) ##

If you don't know the publication date, was it a hardback or a paperback? Was it in library? It may have been old when you read it.

If you don't know the title or the author, do you remember anything at all about the name i.e. "I think the title had a Tiger in it." Everything you remember helps.

 

[chrispenycate]

While we're here, try to put as much information in the title to the thread as is reasonable. 'Looking for a book I once read' or similar doesn't help to find the thread later. I've done a fair number of these, even got some of them right, but the feeling 'yes, I've read that, but who was it?' can take a considerable time to filter through my brain - by which time the thread has become one of many. Recognition information in the title simplifies this considerably.

 

[Danny McG]

If you can identify a Book being searched for and you name it, please give the title/author and, if you wish, a link.

Please don't just say "here you are" and post a link.

There's more than one in this forum where people have done just that and, years down the line, the link is no longer valid, leaving the query unanswered again.

Thanks

 

[Dave]

Our members work extremely hard to endeavour to find the books posted. If they don't remember themselves they may consult sources and indexes, doing an unbelievable amount of legwork. So, if the book is eventually correctly found, please post again saying so (your thanks would be appreciated too) and then the thread title will be updated with (Found) so that others can stop looking for it.

Edited 31/01/2025:

If you fail to return then it may be marked as (Probably Found) or even (Found... Almost Certainly) when there is little doubt.
(There is always going to be "some" remaining doubt unless the OP returns.)

Can I also ask that you post one book per thread/post? This makes the thread much less confusing.

Due to this confusion, for earlier posts with multiple books/stories, you may also see the thread marked as (Probably Both Found) (Partly Found) or (Probably Partly Found) or even (Partly Found... Probably?). Also, it will be marked these where the OP is unsure, or where some question still remains unanswered. For instance, the OP may have asked for the name of an anthology, but only one story has been identified so far, or the name of a character, or a publication date, or cover picture...

If your have a very similar query of your own, rather than tag your own query onto an existing thread, please create an entirely new thread. You can provide a link to the other thread instead. You may believe that your query is identical but it often is not.

Also, we usually frown upon multiple posts in threads, but in this forum please do return if you remember additional information that might help identification. If you want to Bump your query after a few years, don't create another new thread, just add to the original.

Some people have waited years for an answer (the record is currently 15-years) so do come back and check frequently..

And if you find it out the book for yourself, please return and let us know what it was so that we can stop looking for it.

When the OP query has probably been answered already, don't post "similar" books, other anthologies, and lists of recommendations.

While sometimes the story might be a novelisation of a Film or TV episode, when the OP says that they read a "short story" or they read a "novel," or when they are looking for a specific anthology, then that's what it is they are looking for, and we do have separate forums for films and TV.

Our memories play tricks on us, so if the OP says that the book has been found, there is little point in arguing that their description isn't very accurate, and that another book is much closer to their description.

Finally, this forum isn't intended as a kind of 'guess this book' game, but rather as a public service, and so requests for recommendations for books, or where to buy certain books (while some are already posted here) are probably better posted in the Book Discussions forum instead.

Therefore, some older queries may be marked as (Recommendations). And when answering, remember we are trying to answering a specific question, not to give a list of, in your own opinion, "similar" stories (unless that might help to rule some out incorrect stories.)

Requests about resources for finding books, or advice on doing so, will be marked as (Resources).

Occasionally, there are questions about publication dates, dustcover blurbs or first editions, rather than "book search queries". I've therefore marked these (Answered).

cheers

Dave