[logicalmonster]

I'm not sure I fully understand your response, but I'd say this to illustrate my perspective on the problem. Go hang out in a bookstore or library for a while and eavesdrop on the help desk.

You'll see a number of interactions take this sort of form.

"Hey I'm looking for this book my friend showed me last month. It's a big book with a cover that's got some white letters. It's a love story set in England and it has a great action scene at a farm. I don't remember the author's name, but one of his other books was a movie that had a dog in it."