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openTeenage Nerd Crush Literature
It's set in a high school. This nerdy shy kid has a huge a crush on this girl but they've never spoken, She doesn't know who he is, until at some point where they somehow meet.
I remember one part where the boy sneaks over to her house to talk to her, and he looks through her window and sees her lying on her bed in her underwear reading a book and I think he blushes because of that. Then I think she somehow notices him and goes over to talk maybe?
I don't really remember but I think the cover was a lime green color with modern/minimalistic art.
openOld story about soup and a carbuncle Literature
My friend told me that he remembers from his school days (in the 1990s) a story that he says was from The Canterbury Tales. The story told of a cook who had a disgusting sore on his body that was called a "carbuncle", and this cook was famous for making a creamy potato soup. But the cook's patrons avoided the soup because it looked like the pus oozing from the sore in the cook's body.
He insists that the sore was described with the word carbuncle. I tried searching for this and I can find nothing. I think some of the details of my friend's account are mistaken because The Canterbury Tales is from the 14th century and potatoes are from the Americas, which means they would have been unknown in Europe at that time.
Can someone help me find an old tale about a cook with a carbuncle on his body?
EDIT: After more searching I found that the Cook from The Canterbury Tales is described as having a disgusting sore on his leg, and the Summoner is described as having a carbuncle on his face. I can still find no mention of a person who is put off by the resemblance of the Cook's creamy soup having a resemblance to oozing pus though.
Edited by FerrousFaucetopenEarly 90s picture book Literature
Another inquiry from my coworker. This was roughly in the early 90s. She remembers a picture book with two stories in it, one taking place around Christmas. It involved an orange cat named Tiddles, an older black and white cat, and a grey or white animal that looked like a Scottish Terrier according to her, both male, and one or both of them had taken Tiddles in or adopted him, as he was an orphan? She remembers the book cover being blue. She was in Germany at the time but the book was in English, possibly purchased on an American military base.
Cross-posting to r/tipofmytongue as well.
openYA novel (I think) about a thief hired in Roman(ish) Times Literature
The other story that popped into my head recently.
Read it sometime when I was a kid/younger teen so would have been published mid 00s at the latest.
A novel that involved a thief, or someone recruited into being a thief, in either a more historical roman era setting or a more mundane fantasy setting that was similar.
I am pretty sure the protagonist was initially taken prisoner by another character, the ringleader type, in order to use him to steal the whatever-it-was. May have been a scene involving the protagonist trying to do something/escape while his hands were tied.
I recall there were one or two others, possibly soldiers or otherwise more experienced tyoes that made up the group, and I recall they had to travel, with some description of the roman style road.
A particular scene and line come to mind about building a fire, where one of the soldier/tougher characters says something to the effect of "build your fire a house and it will live in it, build it a funeral mound and it will die"
Don't recall the precise wording, just juxtaposition of different ways of stacking wood.
openNovel: Cyberpunk Virtual Reality Game where people go into comas Literature
I vaguely remember reading a cyberpunk type book as a kid that involved VR games that caused people to die or go into a coma, the protagonists were young, possibly siblings, and were trying to figure out why while on the run.
For whatever reason two particular bits stick in my mind: a detective getting out of a car in acid rain, and the protagonists inside a vr game grabbing dirt and a bug crawling out, with a comment on the level of detail put into the game world.
Edited by CorsacopenFolk story about evil wizard miller Literature
I read on Tv Tropes or Wikipedia about folk story where there was a mill no one went to (and i think it said nobody who did go returned), whose miller did some kind of dark magic or he might've been a demon or the devil. I don't remember if the hero was male or female, but the miller propably died at the end somehow.
I vould have sworn the title was "The Black Mill", but i can't find anything by that name...
Edited by NukeliopenChoose your own adventure style book Literature
A choose your own adventure style book with references of chocolate milk and flying to a city for fame. On the cover, there is a dinosaur in a suit in front of a pool at night. I think there was a variation on the Hollywood sign in the background.
openTrying to Look for a Crime / Mystery / Thriller Book Literature
Details that I may be misremembering:
- Male author
- Male protagonist, he's either an investigator or a police officer, but either way around those general fields of work
- The cover was either white or light-blue. The title was definitely red
- Takes place in America, during the winter
- Definitely part of a series, but I do not remember which entry it was
- Published before 31 December 2016
- Story-wise, I *think* a gang got involved in either the climax or the end?
openBook with this romantic plot Literature
I think it might have been a public domain novel. I remember the plot was that there was a villain(?) and he wanted two people to fall in love with each other. A young man and a woman, I think. They fall in love as intended and then he gets upset about it.
openAPP Goddess Girls Literature
What I remember is that it’s centered around Greek mythology & the girls point of view.
openguy in the picture books with overcomplicated rube goldberg machines in his day to day life Literature
I think he was named after newton the book was about the newton (maybe) guy with a cat who made his daily routine out of rube goldberg devices there were lost screwdrivers and in one book he was on a deserted island and actually I think the rube goldberg devices did multiple thing actually
openLogician, not a Magician (Children's Book) Literature
In this story, the main character is a "magician's apprentice" of sorts. The magician and the apprentice are summoned to a castle / mansion for magical mystery-solving services, and the magician claims several times that he is a logician, not a magician. His shtick is a Sherlock-style figuring out what's going on in the castle, while the other characters are convinced that he's arriving at his conclusions through magic.
I feel like the cover of the book was also very dark, I think a shot of the castle, maybe showing a small candlelit window and/or a figure robed in white? Any help would be appreciated!
openChildren's Book with Rose-Tinted Glasses Literature
This book would have been around in the early 2000s, and all I can remember about it was that it was very absurd for a children's book, that I didn't really understand it at all compared to a lot of other books I was reading, that there were some sort of evil alien invaders, and that the rose-tinted glasses of an old woman character were absolutely essential for the triumph over the aliens.
Let me know if y'all have any ideas!
openChildren's puzzle book from the late 90s (American) Literature
It was a short, colorful book with many different kinds of puzzles, aimed at middle schoolers / maybe high schoolers. I believe it was a round number of pages (maybe 50 or 100), each page had a puzzle, and none of the puzzles were the same - so there might be a sudoku on one page, but there wouldn't be any more.
The puzzles themselves had more of a "homemade" feel than sudokus - like something the author came up with on their own. I remember only three of them:
- "The answer is the number of letters in the answer." This one stuck with me the most, because it was really elegant. The answer is four, the only number in English that has the same number of letters as its value.
- A matching game with words and seemingly irrelevant other words or pictures. The hint was that there was a certain kind of person who would find this game very easy - the words were all French words that looked like English words, so "pain" was connected to "bread".
- The last puzzle in the book was about the author's deadlines in writing the rest of one of his books. I think it was a rather simple speed calculation, but the answer was that the author would have to work at the speed of light to get the book done on time.
I found this book in my middle school classroom in around 2003 and really enjoyed it! Any help is appreciated!
Edited by NadnapsopenNinja turtle fanfic Literature
It’s a story where the foot clan murders the turtles and Splinter goes roaring rampage of revenge on them and in the end faces off against Karai.
open90's childrens book about ice cream mascots coming to life + human eating monster Literature
This would have been 1990s, it was a book and audio cassette readalong. I honestly don't remember too much about the illustrations other than they were cartoony, possibly pastel-coloured.
In the story a young girl ends up in a grocery store where the ice cream mascots ( might have been other food but I specifically remember ice cream) come to life. There's definitely a "cool" penguin, possibly a robot too? They go on an adventure and at the end there's a monster that tries to eat the mascots and the girl. I vividly remember the song he sings when he tries to get her;
"Little girls are very nice, especially with peas and rice - I'll tell you what I'm going to do, I'll make you into a tasty stew!"
I can't remember what the monster was, other than it frightened me! It may have been a troll or a giant. The girl and the mascots escape.
I believe the narrator might have been Lenny Henry. They were very animated which is why the song stuck with me.
I've since lost the book and cassette, and the person who gifted me the item has passed away.
This might have been a UK only release.
openBook about teacher turning into a building Literature
I am asking for a friend. They read this around 2016 and recall that it was a stand alone book and mystery. Children in school recall in earlier days, an older teacher (male) turned into a school, a literal school. The school was cursed and the children had to navigate around the school as if they were actual classrooms. My friend also recalls snow during this is all going on. Does this seem familiar to anyone? Thank you in advance.
open(SOLVED) Children's book about a school play: main character got cast as a wall Literature
Hello!
There's a children's book I've been searching for FOREVER that I read as a kid (between like 2008-2010).
It was about a raccoon (or a possum? Maybe a mouse? She was some kind of grey animal) who was so excited to audition for the school play which I think was about Gods or a sun Queen or something. She ended up getting cast as a wall and only had one line: "Please stop kicking me." I remember a whole page that just said "*her name* was in a bad mood all weekend" and there was a picture of her sulking on her bed. She felt better by the night of the performance and said "PLEASE STOP KICKING ME!" so intensely that it scared her scene partner and they ran off into the wings! Would love some help with this! I do not remember the main character's name or who the author was. I do remember the art style but am unsure how to describe it honestly. Water colors-y??? Hope this is enough info to be helpful in spite of that.
Edited by moonovermarisa

I didn't actually read this book myself, but overheard it being mentioned in my dad's phone call with my granddad.
So apparently there was a children's book about some boy who loved playing in the dirt and somehow magically turned into an excavator, and... that's about all I know, aside from these points:
I've told my dad to ask my grandfather for more details the next time he calls him.