Let's call it bookfinder.org or longlostbook.com. It employs a hundred or so well-read book geniuses. Have a book you loved years ago but can't remember the title? Send an email with a description of what you remember. These all go to a central email account, where the geniuses (who I suppose can work from home) will look at requests and answer as they come in.
Yes. I'd like that very much.
11 comments:
Yes! There's a children's book that I can't for the life of me remember --- all I know is that it included (and possibly repeated) the line "And Hugo kissed her back." Actually, if you go to your local library, your librarian will most likely be willing to send out your question to all the librarians in the system to see if anyone knows about it. It didn't work for me, but I loved them for trying!
Even better...if that was your job.
(Note: my job is by no means as nifty as yours and I would cash it in like yesterday)
(Another note: the word verification for this comment is "ovary"...REALLY???? I guess there are not enough words in the English language. Ha! Can you imagine if this was a motorcycle blog?)
Twitter! Ask your followers. It also works for What's That Word and Who's That Person.
Maybe it's just the B&N I visit, but I've baffled their staff dozens of times. (I'm sure it can't be my fragmented descriptions.) I've had much better luck with Borders...and I wouldn't even attempt my small local library (town population 5,000). An online service would be fun...even with my ability to mix up the plots in various books!
What are you looking for? There are a number of literary geniuses (or partial geniuses anyway)tuning in to your blog everyday. Maybe we can help.
Oh yes! Or even a service that would find a book version that is out of print but you loved as a kid. Sigh.
Actually, I've seen this service offered before, but for a particular genre, romance. It's been years since I saw it and can't remember for sure, but I think one of the forums online at Romantic Times was where you could write in with just such a request regarding an old romance novel, and blog readers would respond. They usually got it right.
In addition to Twitter you could try a social search site like Aardvark. Google has one now too, I think. Just ask your question and it will get passed around to people who want to answer questions about books.
Oh please someday let this come true. I want to re-read a beautiful children's book about girls in a dancing academy of some kind, I wish I could remember. The one with straight brown hair loved watching the curly, golden-haired girl dance ballet, but the curly-haired girl loved jazzier dances... or something... loved that book. Oh well. I'd pay for a service like that.
I've actually used Stump the Bookseller before - it sounds like what you're looking for.
Hope this helps:)
http://www.loganberrybooks.com/stump.html
Yalsa-bk, a listserve of ALA, is a great resource. Read by goboodles of librarians who have incredible memories. They love stumpers, too.
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