For her 1974 book Lighter Side of the Library, Janice Glover asked American librarians to recall titles requested by confused patrons, and the books they turned out to want:

Requested: Who Is Your Schoolmaster?

Book wanted: Hoosier Schoolmaster

Requested: Entombed With an Infant

Book wanted: In Tune With the Infinite

Requested: The Missing Hand

Book wanted: A Farewell to Arms

Requested: The Armored Chinaman

Book wanted: The Chink in the Armour

Requested: King of the Ants

Book wanted: Lord of the Flies

Requested: The Wooden Kid

Book wanted: Pinocchio

Requested: Five Pennies and the Sun

Book wanted: The Moon and Sixpence

And so on: From Here to Maternity; The Merchant of Venus; “Allergy in a Country Churchyard”; My Heart Is Wounded, They Buried My Knee. One inspired library staff finally sent a student home with Homer’s Iliad; he had come in asking for Homeless Idiot.