Pages

April 5, 2012

The IMDB of Books?



Suppose you were looking for that book.  You know the one?  That one where the world has been obliterated by an atomic blast and now there are the normals and the mutants, and all the mutants want to do is to be a normal, and there’s this potent drug called death eggs, which are mutated frogs eggs that make you die for a while and then come back to life.

Well, if you were wondering, that particular book (out of print) is called Freaks Amour by Tom De Haven.

So, if you’re looking for a book but can’t remember the title nor the author nor any of the characters’ names, what do you do?  Or you want a book like the book you just finished?  Or what are other books by the same author?  Is there an IMDB of books?  I’ve come across a few candidates.

·         Wikipedia ~ Of course.  Lots of good info there.
·         Amazon ~ Of course.  What better way to find books like the one you just read.
·         Goodreads ~ Once again, of course. And the social and review aspects are great.
·         For very old books, Project Gutenberg ~ Love the digital full-text!

But there are those that are vying to be the actual IMDB of books.

·         Internet Book List at www.iblist.com. Much more straightforward database.
·         Small Demons at www.smalldemons.com. More bells and whistles and markets itself as a site for the details. (Thanks for Dystel & Goderich for the link!)

Any other suggestions?  Where can we go for book detail? 

I haven’t used these last two sites extensively, but I’d be happy to hear any feedback you have on them!

My great friend Ken mentioned independent book stores! Powell's and the Tattered Cover and so many more.  Alibris, also, of course!

2 comments:

Ken said...

powels.com and any number of other great independent book store websites....

Alibris -- at least for titles

Tamara said...

Very good points! I will add. :-)