Welcome to Stump the Bookseller blog!

Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember.

In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course.  It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee.  Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.

Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder.  Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well as we approach the holiday season.  It has come to my attention that G Mail often does not let our e-mails through.  For those using G Mail accounts, if you have submitted a Stumper and have not received an e-mail from us after a few days, please check your spam folder prior to contacting us.

Thanks and take care,

Julie

Hello, Stumper friends and Nostalgia seekers!

Our server crashed about a week ago, and we’ve been having some difficulty with webforms and the WordPress blogs since. We’re working on a solution. Please be patient with us as we crash through the jungle clearing the path and reconnecting all our links. We hope to be back to normal in a couple days. In the meantime, if the comments or forms here aren’t working for you and you need to reach the Stumper Manager, please email Morgan@logan.com.  Thanks.

Sarah Manguso with her new copy of Toodle and Noodle

Huzzah!  Stump the Bookseller made The New York Times!  We’ve gotten a mention once before, but not in the Sunday Book Review!

Thanks to Sarah Manguso and her wonderful trip down memory lane, which took a little jaunt past Stump the Bookseller, and became a recollection in the Author’s Note section of the NYT.  Sarah has several published books of her own, including the recently published Ongoingness: The End of a Diary.  But a vague childhood memory nagged at her, and was not solved by a simple Google search.

And that is how she came to this blog.  Her original query is posted as 169G, and was quickly solved. Sarah wasn’t sure how to get her hands on a book published in 1919, or if the joy of the quest wasn’t more powerful than the reunion might be.  But, hey, we happen to have the book just sitting on our shelves.  So we’re going to send it to her.  Thanks for the publicity, Sarah!

Loganberry Books would like to thank all the Magicians, Wizards, Geniuses, and Miracle Workers out there who help solve our Book Stumpers. Without you we would never be able to reunite people with their long lost book titles.

In the spirit of the season we would like to extend a token of our appreciation to all you wonderful people. This year there are three gifts to choose from.

1) Vintage Children’s book  (titles and condition vary)
2) Advanced Reader’s Copy  (contemporary grab bag)
3) One free Stump the Bookseller posting in 2014

Please send me an email (ami@logan.com) with Stumper Magician in the subject line by January 13th. Tell me something about yourself (what do you do for a living? How many Stumpers have you solved? What do you wish would be reprinted?), and let me know which gift you would like. If you are choosing a book, please be sure to include your mailing address.

Many thanks and Happy Holidays,
Ami & the rest of the crew at Loganberry Books

I would like to take a minute, as we are just one week out from Thanksgiving and Black Friday, to say happy holidays to all. I would also like to thank you for your patience this time of year. During the holidays the store gets very busy and i can sometimes fall a little behind in getting new posts up. What this means is that it may take up to 3 weeks for me to get your post up. I will try as hard as I can to get new posts up each week. Thank you again for your patience.

Ami and the Loganberry Books Staff

Thank you all for your interest in stump the bookseller as well as your patience. I am approximately a week and a half behind in posting and it can regularly take up to two weeks for your query to be posted. Thank you all again.

Ami

Hey Folks – Please bear with us this week. Your posts may be a slight bit delayed as we are hosting a book-fair at one of the local schools and have to pack up and move half the store. (That may be a slight exaggeration.) I will attempt to get your stumpers posted as soon as possible.

Sorry for the delay on posting stumpers during this busy holiday season. Please bear with me as I get caught up.

Thanks

Ami

Just wanted to let everyone who has tried to send in a book stumper in the last couple of days that our email system is down and your posts will be added as soon as I have access to email. Thank you for your patience.