Ever surprised by how hard (or easy) it is to find out a story title/author?

[TomMazanec]

I am not posting this on book search because it is not a request, and I already have four on the first page.
It is interesting how counterintuitive it seems finding out titles and authors can be.
I posted one comment in a book search thread of someone who only remembered the cover. I posted such a memory of my own, in that thread, not a dedicated one, cause the book was well over half a century old, juvenile and not a major author or publisher so I figured not to even clutter the subforum with another search.
A bit later someone posted a link to bad SF book covers, I went there...and my jaw hit my throat.
I posted a long shot, another minor juvenile over 50 years old. I debated wasting the space on such an improbably search.
The answer popped up like a whack-a-mole.
On the other hand I was looking for the author of a short story today. I thought the title was "One Face" but wasn't sure, so I googled [science fiction story one face].
The first one was the Wikipedia entry for "Inconstant Moon" but all the others on the first page were duds. If Wikipedia had not mention another Niven story in a article about a short story, I would have had a fifth book search here.

 

[Danny McG]

It's a dark art finding book titles. People remember so many different things about a story, especially years later when they're trying to recall it.
I've read a gazillion SF stories but a lot of them have faded in my memory

 

[TomMazanec]

Also, I usually don't remember the title, so I was doubly lucky with "One Face" (although I should have realized it was a quintessential Niven story, even if not in one of his "standard" universes).