How To Find a Book Online Without Knowing the Title or the Author

Failing to remember the name of the book you’ve read some time ago is one of the most frustrating feelings. But when memory fails you, as with everything else, you can go online for help.

The internet is full of tools, platforms, and communities that can refresh your memory. So, if you are desperate to find that title or author, you probably won’t be failed by the web. This article will recommend several methods that may aid you in your quest.

First Thing – Write Down All That You know

Since you are going to consult search engines and internet communities, you’ll need all the important pieces of information about your book.

Write some of these things down:

• All the memorable and interesting things that you remember from the book.
• If you wrote down a quote, paragraph, or phrase from the book, find it.
• Any name of the character, city, street, place, even a pet.
• Some important plot points that you remember. For example, a book about a man who wakes up one day in the dumpster.

Now that you have everything in one place, it’s time to ask the internet.

Google’s Advanced Book Search

Instead of using Google’s search all to find your book, you can just search Google Books. This library is one of the biggest online libraries for literature.

Google Advanced Search offers you various search filters. If you remember a phrase, a character or two, or even a certain special word, you can type it out. The search engine will list all the books titles with those specific keywords.

Sometimes, if the book is out of copyright, you’ll be able to read or download it. If not, there’s still a chance you could read a fragment of the book. Usually, publishers would give Google permission to display a small part of the book.

Amazon’s Advanced Book Search

Amazon’s bookstore is a place where you’ll probably find all of the world’s in-print books, and many out-of-print books as well. It has a huge stock and new publishers and independent authors use it to build up their base of readers. Because of this, you may look for some lesser-known titles here and you’ll probably get some hints.

The main problem with Amazon’s book search compared to Google’s is its restrictiveness. If you don’t have any concrete information, you can only try the keyword search. This can be very specific since the more keywords you type, the lesser the chance of you getting a good match.

You can also try using some of Amazon’s Power Search keyword tips to narrow down your search results.

Other Libraries You Can Try

Google and Amazon have the most popular book libraries, but if you happen to strike out there, you can turn to other book databases.

• Bookfinder: A book search engine that has over 1.5 million books in its database. Other than the usual search filters, you can also try searching for a publisher and the published year.

• The Library of Congress: The LOC is the biggest online library in the world. It has a good search engine where you can combine search parameters and keywords. There’s an interesting option called “Ask a Librarian” where you can send an email and maybe ask 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 a “Fiction Finder” section where you can search a book by a character or place in addition to a keyword.

Online Book Communities

The search engines are powerful tools, but perhaps none the more helpful than a fellow reader. That’s why many decide to resolve their issue by asking their fellow readers. The internet has a lot of social platforms that you can turn to, and these are some of the best.

• Goodreads: Goodreads is your own online book log and database. Here you can rate a book, put it on your own digital shelf, write notes, and interact with other readers. Thanks to the ‘’what’s the name of the book’’ thread, you can start your own topic and ask others to help you.

• Reddit: This is the most popular message board platform around, which has a what’s that book It has an active user base so there’s a good chance that someone will recognize your book.

Those Who Search Will Find

With the help of all these tools and communities, you probably won’t be left in the dark. Remember to provide as much information as you can, and maybe you’ll remember some more details in the process.

If you have some other ideas on how to find a book online with relatively little information, feel free to share them in the comments.