"I think this book was written by Heinlein, or maybe Scalzi"

[conuly]

Yes, well, those certainly are two sci-fi writers who could have written a sci-fi book!

On a related note, it may be a little snippy, but anytime somebody posts saying "This book is by Whoever Whatshisface" I just link to their booklist on their website. Because, honestly, why are you posting at /r/whatsthatbook without doing that first if you're so sure you know who wrote it? And if you went to their website and you didn't find the book that's probably because they didn't write the book after all.

(The one exception I've ever made to this rule was when the person was looking for a book by Asimov, because goodness he's prolific! But that's the standard. Whoever it is has to have a longer booklist than Isaac Asimov, and it is astonishing how many well-known writers have not written nearly as many books and short stories as he did.)

Comments

[gingicat]

And then there's Seanan McGuire, but her booklist is complete on her website.

[hudebnik]

Leonard Wibberley (best known for the "Mouse" books about the Duchy of Grand Fenwick) is up there close to Asimov.

[conuly]

That's really remarkable.

[redbird]

There are also George Simenon (more than 400 books, half of them under pseudonyms) and the many-pseudonym'd Lionel Fanthorpe, but I suspect you don't get a lot of people trying to track down Fanthorpes.

[gatheringrivers]

I keep thinking "Oh yea, so-and-so's still around, right?"

....forgetting that it's been 45+ years since I've read so-and-so's book, and they're very likely dead.....

Then it becomes "fsk I'm old...."

[hudebnik]

"why are you posting at /r/whatsthatbook without doing that first if you're so sure you know who wrote it?"

I'm not on Reddit, much less that one in particular, but I have to wonder how often people post not in order to find a book but in order to start a conversation.

In the early music world, there's something of a division between people who play music together because that's the best way to make and play polyphonic music, and people who play polyphonic music because that's a good way to get people together in a room for socializing. (This correlates with the introvert-extrovert dimension.)

[conuly]

It's evenly torn between kidlit and YA or romance. And other stuff, but those are the big two.

[conuly]

I think the conversation starters mostly try to start their conversations in the comments.