Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Kind of Search Engine We Really Need

The Full Metal Archivist was just trying to recommend a book on writing about literature for my students in my Introduction to the English Major course: a thin book with a pale green cover and a kind of polka-dot-like leafy pattern surrounding a title in a cream-colored square by a female critic that's now out of print which she borrowed from me about 5 years ago and hasn't seen since. It describes the elements of poetry, drama, and fiction, includes a glossary of key terms, and uses such examples as Chopin's The Awakening and James Joyce's Dubliners to flesh out its concepts. That means it's not John Ciardi's How a Poem Means.

When she has a chance, she's going to dig through her notebooks from that time (which means a trip to our attic) to try to figure out the title and author. But why do we have to rely on such easily-forgettable information when searching for a book on-line? Assuming the google gods aren't regularly checking in on the obscurest blog on the internets, I'm leaving it to my most loyal remaining readers to identify this test before she does!

2 comments:

Ian said...

Hi Bruce! Ian Messinger here. Since my job is combing through and manipulating Google all day (I'll have to send an update soon), I just spent an hour trying to find this book. No luck yet, but try the out-of-print book directory sites below -- maybe the author's name will jog your memory and save you a trip into the attic:

http://www.bookfinder.com/

http://used.addall.com/

http://www.alibris.com/books/rare?cm_sp=booksTab-_-rare-_-na

http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Community/Featured/out-of-print.shtml?cm_ven=ggl&cm_cat=us-search&cm_pla=out-of-print&cm_ite=out%20of%20print&afsrc=1&gclid=CODX1pK20ZUCFQNHFQodYSu6iA

The Constructivist said...

Thanks, Ian! Drop me a line when you get a chance.