This brought to mind a book I read in my early teens about a girl and her younger brother in some dystopian future where everything is dry, and they go searching for a waterfall on a postcard their parents left them, but when they get there, it's just a little trickle. I am hoping one of your readers knows what book I'm talking about and can refresh my memory on its title.I'm stumped (and I like dystopian future stories), but perhaps somewhere out there is an omnivorous reader or an astute librarian who will know...
Reposted from 2012 because the Comment thread contains lots of useful information re links and resources for readers.
I don't know, but if you want to help me with literary brain-breakers, here's one:
ReplyDeleteThere's some quote about how the lives of common people are just as sad, desperate and futile as the lives of great writers except they're not great writers. I clearly do not have this phrased quite right, as Google has been useless. I thought the quote might have been by George Bernard Shaw, but that seems wrong also.
You could always cite Thoreau -
Delete"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."
It sounds really familiar, but sorry. I remember the one where they were escaping from an underground city, one where they were on an alien planet, harvesting crystals, but the giant alien beasts wanted their crystals back.... Though I couldn't tell you the titles of those, either!
ReplyDeletesmartbitchestrashybooks.com does a "help me find this book that I vaguely remember" (called HABO - help a bitch out) (and sorry for the strong language) feature, though mostly for romance novels.
"one where they were on an alien planet, harvesting crystals, but the giant alien beasts wanted their crystals back"
DeleteThat sounds like the Crystal Singer series by Anne McCaffrey (my favourite book)
The other book sounds like "The City of Ember".
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ReplyDeleteAlso http://www.whatsthatbook.com/
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you for that link! It took the readers 10 minutes to ID an anthology I've been seeking for decades. I found a used one on Amazon via the provided link and will have it on Monday. All of that managed by a one sentence description of the one story I remember. They're good, really good...
DeleteThat link appears to be not working in 2021. Try going here instead -
Deletehttps://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/11/22/finding-book-forgotten-title
Excellent story-finding tips!
ReplyDeleteSeems likely to be "The Crystal Drop" by Monica Hughes (according to http://whatwasthatbook.livejournal.com/1299270.html)
Sounds right from reviews elsewhere. We'll see if Mama Bean confirms. Tx, Ed.
DeleteI think this is it too. I'm a librarian, and I checked out OCLC's WorldCat with some different keyword searches, limiting to YA books. This seemed like the only match.
DeleteIt is definitely the Crystal Drop. One of my favorite fiction books as a kid. Same author also made the book Devil On My Back which is an awesome dystopian future book.
DeletePaula, is there public access to OCLC outside of a library? (I'm familiar with it because I used to help my mom convert TCU's card catalog to computer as a kid, and part of that was comparing things against OCLC and updating records.) I'm curious if it can be searched by anyone.
DeleteHa! and I've just found a story I've been seeking to identify for ages: "Traveller's Rest" in The Caltraps of Time by David I. Masson
ReplyDeleteGood links in comments above. Tx, everyone - I didn't know those sites existed.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to have these links in an article, for future reference. I often come back to find something I read on your blog.
ReplyDeleteBy the way... I always wondered why there was no search box in the right column ?
I agree with your search frustration. I've discovered that if I put in a fascinating photo or video and don't use relevant key words in the appended text, I can't find it again later. Also there's no way to search the comments, where lots of valuable info and opinion is stored. I've thought about moving stuff "up" (like adding an addendum to this one re "book search websites"), but that's a lot of work, and this blog is a time-consuming hobby as it is.
DeleteBut... "I always wondered why there was no search box in the right column." ??? Look again. Right above my grandfather's photo.
Apparently that search box only works if you have Ad-Block disabled for this site. I just got a new computer and haven't finished disabling it on my preferred-reading sites (such as this one), and noticed that I couldn't find that search box you described. I opened it up in Google Chrome and it was there, so I figured it had to be related to an extension setting on Firefox and Ad-block was the culprit.
DeleteThank you, JPinnix. I didn't know that, and it explains a lot of things. I've written a new post based on your comment. :.)
DeleteI haven't read the book, but I have seen the movie.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkqzFUhGPJg
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!! lol Gonna go (re)read the book and watch the MOVIE wheeeeee
ReplyDeleteReposted from 2012 because the Comment thread contains lots of useful information re links and resources for readers.
ReplyDeleteDamnit, Stan! You got me all excited about a book hunt and let me down like this.
Aw dangit! The site "whatwasthatbook" no longer exists.
ReplyDeleteLinkrot - the bane of old posts. I found this today -
Deletehttps://www.nypl.org/blog/2017/11/22/finding-book-forgotten-title