Hard to find books? Every book lovers’ frustration!

I have a little notebook where I write down all the books I read. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration. I try to keep a list of all the books I read. I’ve only been really trying for the past few years and even then I sometimes forget. This usually means that I have no record of things I read as a teen. (I’m 28, by the way.) Anyway, this notebook I speak of is crammed with titles and authors in happy disorder. As I read each book, I check it off and feel very accomplished.

I was going through my notebook this weekend, looking for something interesting, and noticed how many books I have listed that I just can’t find. I prefer to get my books from the library because I’m poor and broke and rather not spend the money for cat food on books. My kitty may just kill me. So, after a few attempts to find a book, I usually put a little x by the entry and move on. Occasionally I’ll try again at a future date. Some book entries have several little x’s next to them, meaning I’ve tried for years to find that book.

Night Stalks the Mansion by Constance Westbie and Harold Cameron has six x’s by it.

A True Story of One family’s Ghostly Adventure. No one believes in ghosts until they have to. The Cameron’s believe. In 1864 a fourteen-year-old girl was raped and strangled outside her home. A Century later the spirit of her mother and the man who murdered her still roam the mansion grounds. Night Stalks the Mansion is the account of two chilling years Harold Cameron and his family lived in the haunted mansion.

The book was originally published in 1978 by Bantam Books and, as far as I can tell, didn’t have another printing. For the life of me, I can’t find it. Can you comprehend how frustrating that is for a book lover? I can’t find Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harris or Coven of One by Kate Bousfield either. They have two x’s by them. Finding all the books published by Diana Wynne Jones is something I have been working on for years and I still can’t find all of them. I even went into a bookstore, completely willing to buy them, and they didn’t have any copies either. I’ve been trying to tease out Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series but can find those either. It’s enough to drive a reader to drink hard liquor!

What about you? Have you been searching for a book for years but just can’t seem to find it anywhere?