Books You Don’t Remember the Name or Author of - Because if I can’t remember the name, it’ll drive me crazy

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

"EvenNo it wasn't the scary stories series books I know it was a scholastic series. I've never heard of Kentucky fried rat.


Litteraly the story of the stolen skull is all I remember from that collection. It was a book I read while I was with the boys and girls club of America a decade and change ago

Is it "Even More Scary Stories" "Goosebumps" spin-off by R.L. Stine?
One story had a boy who hears "I'm so cold", only to find his dog was possessed by the ghost

 

[Bugl]

No one is going to get this but it's worth a shot. It's a sci fi book that my uncle had. I guess it was the 89s-90s but I have no idea how old the book was. It's no longer on the shelf I checked years ago and I don't know where it went. I am pretty sure I never borrowed it or even read it. But I did like the cover when I was a kid.

Not sure if this was the front or back cover. But it had a silver android man. I think he had a smooth, almost featureless head. But he was kind of gracile and elegant. I guess if an android can be that way. And he had a woman with him. I think they were overlooking a desert landscape. It wasn't The Martian Chronicles because he was definitely an android and not an alien.

I thought it might be I, Robot. And it honestly could be. But the cover I looked up had a little girl. I am fairly certain it was a grown woman on the book that I saw as a child. But it may actually be Asimov. I just can't google-fu the correct cover or book.

This should be very interesting. Guys for me, a very big discovery in the world of books lately has become the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. For a long time I could not remember the title of this book, but I heard a lot about it. I came across it quite by accident in my e-book and I decided to read it during a flight to another city. I know that the book is very popular and most likely everyone has read it, but I read it very recently and it created a cognitive revolution within me. Here also https://writingbros.com/essay-examples/to-kill-a-mockingbird/ I read some critical articles and essays about this book, which allowed me to form a complete understanding of the book. In short, if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I have one for you all! It’s a book I have been trying to find for ages and no amount of Googling or searching the local library has helped.
I originally read it in the late ‘90s or very early ‘00s. The cover had at least one teenage boy on it and he was looking into an open door that showed a whale-creature flying through space on the other side.
The story was about a boy who finds a portal in a shed and there is something slowly approaching on the other side of the portal. Throughout the story the thing gets closer and closer and the boy and his brother/friend have to find a way to close the portal before the thing on the other side reaches it.

Is it this?

 

[Gentleburd]

Is it this?
View attachment 2099430

Oh my god that’s it! Thank you so much!

 

[Puff]

There was a book I read in middle school that I remember being one of the first ladylike” books I read (mainly because the opening scene described one of the main characters’ nipples being visible through her clothes). The plot itself is the main character has pyrokinesis, and the female character has claws that can make them astral project. It’s revealed that reality is really a computer simulation run by humanoid aliens, two of which are taken over by the astral projecting main characters. Eventually, they take the aliens’ daughter to the real life earth which is now a nature preserve. Eventually the daughter dies, and it pulls back to reveal that it was a dream. The female main character had overdosed on the drug “MAZE” (which gets referenced throughout the dream part of the book), and the male main character had to enter her dream to try and pull her out of the coma. The book ends with the male main character wondering how many hundreds of stories like that she has dreamed through.

Even at the time I thought it was awful, but I can’t stand not knowing what book it was.

Replying to an early post cause drunk:
I need to get back into genre fiction. I remember crazy shit like this from when I was a kid reading whatever had a cool cover. Now it's just an endless stream of nonfiction, which is great and all, but some levity would be nice.

 

[mouthnotbigenough]

if anyone can help me out;
there was a book based on pilgrim's progress in a fantasy setting. there was something called a 'book of blood' and the burden everyone carried took the form of a tumor on everyone's shoulder that was invisible to most people... i remember the book of blood transformed from having a large wound on it to having a white leaf? cannot find this book for the life of me.

EDIT: just found it, it's called quest for celestia. i just randomly remembered the name i think i'm retarded.

 

[CeleryStalks]

There was one children's book, with full illustrations, that I think I read in preschool. It was a sort of fairy tale about a king who wanted to be taller, so two con artists came to his castle with a magic potion. But the queen (or maybe the princess?) was suspicious, so the crooks sprinkled the potion on some flowers, then in the middle of the night they dug the flowers up and replaced them with sunflowers. King excited, queen still suspicious. Next they sprinkle it on a cat, and in the middle of the night replace it with a tiger. King excited, queen still suspicious, so she orders the crooks to be sprinkled with the potion, and overnight she has the servants quietly lower the roof of the room, replace their clothes with doll clothes, and stuff like that. In the morning, the crooks think they've turned into giants, panic, and run away, and I forget what happened after that but I presume the king learns to be content with who he is.

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

I remember seeing a book cover that scared me when I was like 6 or so. It was presumably a Goosebumps-esque book that had a cover of a bunch of surfing aliens with exposed brains and some kids freaking out.

Thinking about it makes me laugh. I just want to see the cover again to see why I was so scared of it. Searching for "Surfing aliens book" gets me pictures of the Silver Surfer...

 

[Coffee Druid]

There was one children's book, with full illustrations, that I think I read in preschool. It was a sort of fairy tale about a king who wanted to be taller, so two con artists came to his castle with a magic potion. But the queen (or maybe the princess?) was suspicious, so the crooks sprinkled the potion on some flowers, then in the middle of the night they dug the flowers up and replaced them with sunflowers. King excited, queen still suspicious. Next they sprinkle it on a cat, and in the middle of the night replace it with a tiger. King excited, queen still suspicious, so she orders the crooks to be sprinkled with the potion, and overnight she has the servants quietly lower the roof of the room, replace their clothes with doll clothes, and stuff like that. In the morning, the crooks think they've turned into giants, panic, and run away, and I forget what happened after that but I presume the king learns to be content with who he is.

That dug up some memories for me, I'm pretty sure I also read that too as a kid. Some googling later and I'm pretty sure I found it. It's a princess who sniffs out the crooks, as they want her hand in marriage in exchange for the powder.

 

[The Vicar]

I remember seeing a book cover that scared me when I was like 6 or so. It was presumably a Goosebumps-esque book that had a cover of a bunch of surfing aliens with exposed brains and some kids freaking out.

Thinking about it makes me laugh. I just want to see the cover again to see why I was so scared of it. Searching for "Surfing aliens book" gets me pictures of the Silver Surfer...

Is this it?

 

[SITHRAK!]

Edit: deleted because ninja’ed

 

[CeleryStalks]

That dug up some memories for me, I'm pretty sure I also read that too as a kid. Some googling later and I'm pretty sure I found it. It's a princess who sniffs out the crooks, as they want her hand in marriage in exchange for the powder.

View attachment 2227913

Looks like that's the one. I'm going to get it on inter-library loan and see just how much my memories have diverged from reality in twenty years. Thanks!

 

[SITHRAK!]

I had this book when I was a kid, but I can't find it. It was big and red, about the size of a small coffee table. There were dwarves or gnomes on the cover, riding some sort of flying machine. The book itself was about these dwarves/gnomes going on a journey in a airship and the only reason I remember that was because there was a full spread of the cutaway airship somewhere in the book and it detailed each compartment as to what it did to operate the ship. I think there was even a list of supplies they were going to take with them written right next to it. I don't remember much of the story apart from the fact they crash the airship at some point and have to build another. I think the second airship was the one on the cover.

I've had no luck googling it so far.

Was it an airship, though?
Your post sounds a lot like Ingpen's 'Voyage of the Poppykettle'.

Now, for a real fucking challenge.
When I was in middle school in the mid 80's I found a book in my school library whose title I can't remember, but that had a somewhat cartoonish drawing of a 70's pimped-out black guy on the cover.
The basic plot of this dystopian book (and this is God's truth) is a bunch of white folks start making and selling a cola drink marketed exclusively towards blacks. The figure on the front of the book is actually the drink's mascot, 'Snappy Joe Black'. They heavily market this cola using Snappy Joe Black, with T-shirts and TV shows, turning him into an icon for black people everywhere. The cola becomes a runaway success and ends up in pretty much every black household.
The twist is that the cola itself is chemically treated to permanently sterilize anyone who drinks enough of it. Some of the masterminds behind the scheme even discuss collateral damage, such as white kids drinking it. The discussion ends with the reasoning that if any white kid identifies strongly enough with black culture to drink enough to sterilize themselves, chances are the world is better off without them.
Yes, this was a kid's book, aimed at early teenagers.
Before you assume that this was 'Camp of the Saints' for future Klan leaders, the book was actually intended to be a warning about the power of marketing and its ability to conceal evil and manipulate the masses. But for pretty obvious reasons all records of it seem to have been scrubbed from the internet.
I credit the book with instilling in me a lifelong cynicism and suspicion of 'spin' and marketing. My generalized dislike of niggers? That, I got from interacting with them, and had nothing to do with the book.

 

[Night Owl]

Was it an airship, though?
Your post sounds a lot like Ingpen's 'Voyage of the Poppykettle'.

I'm absolutely sure it was an airship. "Poppykettle" looks close to what I'm looking for, but Ingpen's artwork doesn't ring a bell. Unless there was some alternative artwork for the book, this probably isn't it. I remember it being very detailed and traditionally drawn, but was more cartoony in style.

 

[SITHRAK!]

In the category of 'books you loved but got away', I remember (guessing late '88 to mid '89) leafing through a copy of a luxurious, glossy, full-color near-A2 hardback of the goblin and creature designs from Henson's 'Labyrinth'.
Few words, but delicately delineated and detailed designs for the movie, some deft watercolor and others in masterful pen and ink.
There are maybe a dozen desperately desired books in my life that I did not buy when the chance arose; but this, by far, is my greatest regret.

 

[glass_houses]

In the category of 'books you loved but got away', I remember (guessing late '88 to mid '89) leafing through a copy of a luxurious, glossy, full-color near-A2 hardback of the goblin and creature designs from Henson's 'Labyrinth'.
Few words, but delicately delineated and detailed designs for the movie, some deft watercolor and others in masterful pen and ink.
There are maybe a dozen desperately desired books in my life that I did not buy when the chance arose; but this, by far, is my greatest regret.

You mean this?

 

[SITHRAK!]

You mean this?

Pretty sure that’s it, yeah. Nice.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Was it an airship, though?
Your post sounds a lot like Ingpen's 'Voyage of the Poppykettle'.

Now, for a real fucking challenge.
When I was in middle school in the mid 80's I found a book in my school library whose title I can't remember, but that had a somewhat cartoonish drawing of a 70's pimped-out black guy on the cover.
The basic plot of this dystopian book (and this is God's truth) is a bunch of white folks start making and selling a cola drink marketed exclusively towards blacks. The figure on the front of the book is actually the drink's mascot, 'Snappy Joe Black'. They heavily market this cola using Snappy Joe Black, with T-shirts and TV shows, turning him into an icon for black people everywhere. The cola becomes a runaway success and ends up in pretty much every black household.
The twist is that the cola itself is chemically treated to permanently sterilize anyone who drinks enough of it. Some of the masterminds behind the scheme even discuss collateral damage, such as white kids drinking it. The discussion ends with the reasoning that if any white kid identifies strongly enough with black culture to drink enough to sterilize themselves, chances are the world is better off without them.
Yes, this was a kid's book, aimed at early teenagers.
Before you assume that this was 'Camp of the Saints' for future Klan leaders, the book was actually intended to be a warning about the power of marketing and its ability to conceal evil and manipulate the masses. But for pretty obvious reasons all records of it seem to have been scrubbed from the internet.
I credit the book with instilling in me a lifelong cynicism and suspicion of 'spin' and marketing. My generalized dislike of niggers? That, I got from interacting with them, and had nothing to do with the book.

Google keeps trying to lock me out of its site for searching for this book. I guess it’s just the right combination of words to get you noticed or something

 

[Disc]

I've got one. This one's been bothering me for YEARS.

It's a kids book, I'm pretty sure the entire setting is like near some australian road. The main stars are a species of little bob creatures - they look like furbies or the littlest totoro, something roughly that shape. They're called the wimblies or the womblies or something like that. They are just like a little hovel of these blob things. I'm 99% percent sure that the name of the species is the title.

They're super agreeable, responding to any claims with stuff like 'no doubt, no doubt'. They're also malleable and stretchable.

They get tortured by these little gremlin things for a while, but eventually or the wumblies end up squished into a super-wombly. I distinctly remember there being like 3/4s of a page dedicated to that picture. that super-wombly inadvertently scares the gremlins off and the womblies come apart naturally.

 

[The Vicar]

I've got one. This one's been bothering me for YEARS.

It's a kids book, I'm pretty sure the entire setting is like near some australian road. The main stars are a species of little bob creatures - they look like furbies or the littlest totoro, something roughly that shape. They're called the wimblies or the womblies or something like that. They are just like a little hovel of these blob things. I'm 99% percent sure that the name of the species is the title.

They're super agreeable, responding to any claims with stuff like 'no doubt, no doubt'. They're also malleable and stretchable.

They get tortured by these little gremlin things for a while, but eventually or the wumblies end up squished into a super-wombly. I distinctly remember there being like 3/4s of a page dedicated to that picture. that super-wombly inadvertently scares the gremlins off and the womblies come apart naturally.

There's a book called Where the Womblies Are (written by Steve Allen, illustrated by Earl C. Woodard) but I can't find any summary of the plot, nor any examples of the pictures.