I'm no help, but it's funny that you say you recall the location, because I'm that way, too. I often don't remember titles, authors, character names, or plot, but I'll remember the spot where I found it or colors from the cover or inside artwork. Sometimes I'll also remember the feeling or mood the book left me with. Ah well. I wish I could take a memory pill that gave me instant recall for these situations.

Goodreads can help! At least the posters can. If you register at goodreads.com, there is a discussion thread called "What's the Name of that book?" You can post any little scrap of memory there and it will be discussed until the title comes out-hopefully.
I love Goodreads.
Cece

Oh Thanks! I knew there was a site for this sort of thing.
Peach, that's the way it is with me too. I remember the moods and the way the book made me feel but not the plot.

Bumblebeez and peach, I have that kind of memory too! It's kind of frustrating sometimes when I am trying to have a debate or discussion with someone because I can't quote my sources! But I never get lost and need very few directions when I go somewhere.

actually, it is a discussion group-not thread.

Now this is a title that caught my attention. I often have a vague impression or fragmentary memory of a book I read long, long ago and would love to read again. One book I read when I was about ten years old. I looked for that book for years. With no author and no title I was in a difficult situation. I consulted children's librarians and even an index of children's books by theme to no avail. Then one day I read a review of a new movie and it sounded exactly like the story I remembered. The title seemed wrong. I later discovered that they changed the title when they made the movie, turning The Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry into The Secret of Roan Inish. Needless to say, I tracked down a copy of the book and added it to my home library.

Rosefolly

I loved that movie, btw.

I didn't know The Secret of Roan Inish was a book, I'm going to have to look that up. I loved that movie too.

The Wind in the Willows. Now that one always brings back those good memories! It was one of my favorites. Toad went from adventure to the next and I was right there with him. It was raining when I first read it and I can still smell the wet grass if I close my eyes and really concentrate!

Joan

Speaking of finding a book....right now I am looking for a book that I KNOW I have and I cannot find it, AH! I have all my books organized by subject so it isn't a complete disaster but I can't find it. Anyone else have this problem?

The weird thing is, in a couple of weeks there it will be just sitting there.

Deborah, I know that problem well. I have limited shelf space so that while my books are organised roughly by subject, they sometimes stray onto other shelves because there isn't room for them on the right shelves, due to overcrowding or awkward formats. Also, whenever I move, reorganise or buy a new bookscase, the books never end up on the same shelves and I have to relearn my library all over again.

This summer I finally gave myself the time to make a simple Excel file with all my books, and have been religiously entering every change in it, so now I at least know what I own, what I got rid of and what I have lent to my mother. unfortunately it's not going to help me find books that have simply gone astray on the shelves.

I just tried to find The Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry online and I found it for......$248.99!
Hmmm. Don't know if I want to risk that much on a gamble!

HOW does this work??? Can it be a rare book? Will someone actually pay that much for the book? Perhaps it IS a rare book and I'm unaware, but I've searched for other books that I knew weren't rare and there they are for hundreds of dollars.

Are they perhaps reluctant sellers??? Perhaps angry spouses have said "Its me or the books!"

It is a combination of rarity and "trying it on." That copy may be in very good condition, or signed, or a first edition, or a British first edition, or from a small printing run....and maybe someone WILL pay that much.
I had a long discussion with a used book dealer a few weeks ago while waiting for DH to finish in the shop next door, and I asked this very question-I've had the same experience and it has puzzled me too.

CeCe, thank you for this posting. I have a book of short stories I've been trying to find for years. The only story I can recall involves a man stalking a woman, the man somehow tampers with her prescription eye drops and she finds out when she accidentally spills the drops on a wooden table and the acid in the bottle eats through the wood. I think there was a dog involved, too, but maybe not. I posted in the "What's the Name of the Book?" group today; keeping my fingers crossed that this rings a bell with someone.