How To Find Weirdly Specific Books Online

I’m excellent at discovering issues on the web. I’m not at an expert degree, I’m not a detective or a librarian — I’m merely a gifted novice who generally will get bored at evening and likes to subject herself challenges. I’ve discovered the present employer of somebody I attended faculty with after I was six. I’ve discovered the aspect hustles of individuals I’ve labored with by means of the years. I’d by no means really do something with this data. I identical to to know issues. 

Like many individuals, it looks like I learn much more after I was youthful. I had what I now consider as a sort of magical relationship with my center faculty’s library and what felt like infinite time to seek out bizarre books there. The assortment was eclectic and I went by means of a stage by which I’d purposely pick the longest books I might discover in order that I all the time had one thing to learn. I’ve written beforehand about discovering Flowers within the Attic in that library, however I additionally fell in love with extra age-appropriate (if decidedly classic) books like Eleanor Cameron’s A Spell is Cast and The Court of the Stone Children (each of which I’ve hunted down copies as an grownup), The Scarlet Pimpernel, and, most pertinently to this text, an abridged version of Les Misérables. I used to be in center faculty within the early 2000s. It was peak wizard time, and I used to be extraordinarily into that too, however these books circulated so seldom that it felt like they belonged simply to me. Numerous my id as a reader was in-built that house.

One of the methods I return to that feeling is with a number of the books I found at the moment. But it’s not all the time sufficient to get the guide I want. I want the guide, as near the model I bear in mind studying as potential, whether or not that’s an out-of-print cowl variation or a model that was particularly made for libraries. The tangible objects, even when they’re not precisely the identical ones, join me to my former self — the child who pulled an outdated guide with a French title off of a library shelf and determined to deliver it house. 

If you’re seeking to reconnect with a guide out of your previous, listed here are some strategies as to how you can make that occur.

First, you need to know what you’re in search of. If you’re lacking very important details about your required guide (maybe the total title) there are communities on Reddit the place individuals with completely superb recall may help you.

Once you’re certain what you might be in search of,  an ISBN is your finest pal in case you are fortunate sufficient to have it. ISBNs grew to become normal within the late Nineteen Sixties and each version of a guide has its personal ISBN, together with all variations of hardcovers and paperbacks, which could be very useful if you’re in search of out a selected cowl to finish your assortment to keep away from the dreaded un-matched sequence in your shelf. However, within the case of my Les Misérables, which (I’d later discover out) was revealed a few many years earlier than the ISBN grew to become normal, I needed to get inventive. This wasn’t a uncommon and precious guide to anybody however me, so it was going to be a real problem.

I remembered that it was a purple hardcover (it was not) and that it had an illustration of Jean Valjean with silver candlesticks on the entrance cowl. I additionally remembered the “real people pictures,” which it took me far too lengthy to comprehend needed to be stills from a black and white film. The film, I assumed, may very well be a key to determining when the guide was revealed, which might assist me to slim down the version.

Do you know the way many film variations of Les Misérables there have been? This was not as useful as I assumed it was going to be.

As I started my search, I filtered Les Misérables a dozen methods on AbeBooks however the doubtless candidates had no footage. I like AbeBooks as a result of it appears to have extra filtering choices than different websites I’ve tried and much more of the listings on the location have footage. I’m typically capable of break my search right down to solely a web page or two of outcomes fairly than the handfuls that may come up elsewhere. I’ll often filter by binding sort (hardcover vs. paperback) after which kind by value to attempt to preserve issues affordable. With a typical title with many variations that is much less useful than traditional.

Having struck out barely right here, I then searched Google for “les miserables for children” and “les miserables film illustrations abridged.” Surprisingly, the latter led me to an inventory on eBay the place I discovered the title of the individuals who had tailored the guide, which opened up a complete world of potentialities. Never underestimate simply occurring upon simply the best search time period on Google. Sometimes you get fortunate.

Once I’ve discovered the guide, the sport adjustments to discovering the very best version at a reasonable-for-me value level. This generally results in questions like would I want a small rip within the mud jacket or what is likely to be a spot of mildew? (I’ll take the rip each time). It’s all a part of the sport. In this case, there have been three copies out there and one was principally new (take into account that this guide was revealed in 1947 and was out there for the extraordinarily affordable value of $20). I’ll often see if I can discover the guide on eBay, AbeBooks, and even generally Amazon (however, once more, the shortage of images of the particular merchandise on Amazon often doesn’t work for me).

My system is chaotic at finest however I all the time get my man guide. I’m the Inspector Javert of the book-finding sport and each guide is my Jean Valjean. This model of Les Misérables, whereas abridged, wasn’t essentially written for center schoolers. I can’t say how a lot I really would have understood if I hadn’t already been accustomed to the musical, however it opened a door — I’d finally write my undergraduate thesis largely concerning the concepts of revolution in that guide and in different nineteenth century French novels. I by no means actually anticipated to see it once more and I smile each time I take a look at it. It was nicely well worth the $20.

Hunting for books on this manner is just not even one thing I do on a regular basis, however, occasionally, the thought will come, “I wonder if I could get…” and I’m off on the hunt.