Have you ever forgotten the title of a book you really enjoyed?

[=X=]

While most of us want to forget terrible books as much as our brains allow, how much can we retain of good books we really enjoyed?

There have been some books I've read in my past and have really enjoyed, yet for the life of me I cant remember their titles. I'm wondering has anybody else forgotten a title of a book you would re-read or recommend?

=X=

[HarryT]

Good heavens, yes! I remember plots; titles just "evaporate" from my memory.

[=X=]

Good to hear I'm not the only one wouldn't it be great of there was a website that could look up books based on plots and characters

[zelda_pinwheel]

god yes, alas. it's why i (finally) started keeping a list, which i should have done years ago. i've started my share of "anybody have any idea what this book could be ?" threads here...

i actually did find once a forum dedicated to helping you figure out the titles you forgot based on plot ; if i can find it again (because naturally i've forgotten the name of the site as well... ) i'll post it here.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i actually did find once a forum dedicated to helping you figure out the titles you forgot based on plot ; if i can find it again (because naturally i've forgotten the name of the site as well... ) i'll post it here.

it might be "booksleuth" from abebooks : http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom

Is there a special book that you read, or perhaps had read to you, at some point in your life but you can't remember the author and title? Perhaps you know the plot, or a character, or maybe even what the front cover looks like. BookSleuth® is here to help you find that book! Simply post a short description of what you can remember here on our board. Visitors from all over the world will read your post, and one of them is bound to know exactly what you're talking about and post a response. Not missing anything? Why not see if you can help anyone else find their long-lost books?

[A Nonny Mouse]

Oh! my yes! I often forget the titles but remember vividly the cover image - which does not help much.

[wayrad]

Originally Posted by =X=

Good to hear I'm not the only one wouldn't it be great of there was a website that could look up books based on plots and characters

Given the wild variety in the sort of details people remember and the strange ways the details get rearranged, I think a lookup system would be difficult to design. But there are several sites where book descriptions can be posted and people can respond with the title. The Booksleuth forum at abebooks.com is probably the best - although the forum software is antiquated and buggy, the system works with a minimum of input from the site owner. Whatsthatbook.com is also fairly active, but tends to get behind on marking correct answers. Loganberry.com has a for-pay board, but requires answers to be submitted to the moderators for eventual posting, and it too seems a bit neglected these days. I've seen others, but mostly confined to specific genres, like romance.

It's amazing how often the same books recur on such sites, too. Earth Abides is probably the most notorious example.

[=X=]

@zelda/wayrad Nice find I'll have to check out the web sites.

[kacir]

This happens a lot to me and since I read e-book the problem has become aggravated. This is because I prefer not to have name of author or a book occupying precious screen space on ever single "page" of the book. With paper books, the name is on the cover and you see it every time you pick the book. On my reader I only see the title when I am selecting the book.

[mores]

I usually forget the title when I'm on page 2, sometimes page 5.
Since the eBook reading program does not show the title/cover upon launch but shows the last place I read, I must use extra time and energy to find out the title ... so I just stay stupid.

Also, notice there is a "name that book" thread for people like us
Shameful if you forget a book by your favorite author!

[Krystian Galaj]

I remember only some titles, those that make the book whole, those that can describe the book to me in a few words. for example "A Night in Lonesome October" by Roger Zelazny.

[Sweetpea]

Absolutely! And there's one book, I read in my youth (if would have helped if I remember when I'd read it...) that I'm still looking for. Problem is, I can't even remember much of the plot... I only know I liked it much and it was about a boy who grew up a slave but turned out to be much more and he had a locket which was part of his past...

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Absolutely! And there's one book, I read in my youth (if would have helped if I remember when I'd read it...) that I'm still looking for. Problem is, I can't even remember much of the plot... I only know I liked it much and it was about a boy who grew up a slave but turned out to be much more and he had a locket which was part of his past...

That sounds like the plot of every third fantasy novel written nowadays.

[jes1]

I often forget the titles of the books I read, and sometimes even the author. Now that I am mostly reading e-books, I made an "I read it" folder and move any book I read to that folder to make it a little easier to keep track. Someday I want to make a spread sheet of all my books (p- and e-), but that is a project I keep putting off. I forget which books I have, and sometimes buy duplicates because of that, so it would definitely be a worthwhile project.

[mores]

Especially difficult are authors with book series where the names revolve around various combinations of "Honor", "Justice" and "Power"
(Vince Flynn, for example.)