What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

What to put into your post for your lost love.

warning, this is a long post, but should be read because of the information it provides.

These are the things that will help you get your book found the fastest. It is also the best way we have found that doesn't require you to write a Master's level dissertation on your missing book.


This is one group where spoilers are not only requested, but almost required. Since many books have similar plot-lines, often it is the spoilers that get it identified. If you are still leery of posting them, there is a way to have them "hidden" in your post, requiring that someone actually click on the linkage in order to read it. Directions are in the Some HTML is OK link to the upper right of the posting box.

Please be polite. And remember--the biggest problem with the written word is--there are no facial or vocal clues to what the poster means. So someone might be joking, but because you can't "see" or "hear" them, you can't tell that, and so you get upset. Take a minute or three and then try to take it that way. The only exception to this rule is trolls. And, well, trolls are easy to ID. And usually get themselves banned. We have been very lucky and haven't had many of those show up in our group, and when they have shown up, they haven't lasted long.

This next bit is to help you know what YOUR responsibilities are for getting your book found.

First, it is your responsibility to monitor your thread for replies. Also, check the box under the comment box if you want to be emailed when people reply. That's the only way you'll receive notifications.


Second, if your book is not found right away do not give up because we won't. Just mark your thread's address somewhere (I suggest either saving in Favorites on your task bar or have a specific document set up with all of your thread addresses saved on it.) The reason for this is--you will get only ONE notice when someone posts to your threads. If you don't go and check the thread, you will never get another, and then you won't know that your book has been found. However, after you check in, it resets to zero and will send you another notice after another posting. Set yourself a recurring reminder to check your thread if you haven't been notified of any traffic in it. The reason for that is that often those notices get shunted into SPAM folders by over-vigilant email programs. Plus, if your book is not found right away, you will want to come back periodically and bump it back to the top of the queue so that new members can see it and us "old timers" in the group are reminded of it. At present, there are about 3k or so queries in the Unsolved folder, and if you don't bump back to the top of the queue, your book will languish down in the basement and never get seen again. Also, if you, the OP (original poster), don't show up periodically in your thread and make some kind of posting, we, the moderators will think you have lost interest and will move your thread down to Query Abandoned by Poster where it will wither and die a sad, slow death. We are very generous on the timeline for this, giving you 2 years before we start to think about moving your thread. (And if it's a popular thread, that 2 years could stretch to 3 or 4.) We, the mods, have even been known to send PM's to OP's who haven't responded to posting in quite a while.

Time line for your book being found

Your book might be found within 2 minutes (we've had it happen) or it could take a while. We have had books that were posted 6 or 7 or even 8 years ago found recently. And that was mostly because the OP (Original Poster) made the effort to come back in periodically and bumped their thread back to the top of the queue. To bump your thread simply type Bump into the comment box or, if you’ve remembered something else about the book, type that into the comment box, or answer a question that someone else has posted.
Timeline for bumping.

The time period for bumping your post back to the top of the queue is at least 30 to 90 days. We have over 27K members and as of the typing of this, over 79k individual threads, which is the reason for setting the minimum bump time for 30 days. Also, that way, we all have time to do more reading and to see more books, plus get a few new members or have old members check back in, and we don't get upset by someone spamming their thread to the top of the queue constantly.

What to do when your book is found

When your book is found please let us know that it's found and one of the moderators will shelve your book and then move your thread down to Solved. This way we can shelve your book and get your thread into the correct Solved folder. We used to let anyone do it, but it got too confusing, so now only Mods can shelve a book. (And yes, we moderators do tend to be a bit OCD and have been known to be found by our families cackling happily and rubbing our hands with glee as we shelve that book.) The way to let us know your book has been found is to put a message in the thread title saying "SOLVED" and telling us in the body of the thread what the correct title is, if there have been several suggested.

Also, when your book is found--please, please, please do NOT delete your original request. All that you deleting your original post does is confuse others who might be looking for the same book, and doesn’t delete the thread. We have some books that have had 8 or 10 different people looking for them. So your solved request could help someone else find the book too. For instance the book Invitation to the Game has had 15 or 16 requests, and no two are exactly the same. (But we still add each one to the links for that book, so that even if you aren't the first person to look for a specific book, your thread will still be linked.) Also, leaving your original post and description will help if someone else, who is doing a general Google search, might remember something that is covered in your query post that tells them “Hey, this is the book that I’ve been searching for.” We even have the Library of Congress linking to our group, so your book search can have a much bigger reach than you realize, since that ups the number of people who might see your thread up way above the number of people who are members of our group.