How to Cite From a Book?
How to Cite From a Book?
You need three things every time you cite from a book: author, year, and page number. Drop those into your style's format (APA, MLA, or Chicago), and you're done.
The Core Formula
Every book citation answers the same questions. Who wrote it? When was it published? Where in the book did the quote come from? Style guides just shuffle that information into different orders.
Here's what each major style wants for an in-text citation pulled from a book:
- APA 7th edition: (Author, Year, p. #) for a direct quote. (Smith, 2019, p. 42)
- MLA 9th edition: (Author Page) with no comma. (Smith 42)
- Chicago author-date: (Author Year, Page). (Smith 2019, 42)
- Chicago notes-bibliography: A superscript number tied to a footnote with full details.
Page numbers are required for direct quotes in all three. APA only requires them for paraphrases when the source is long and you want to point readers to a specific passage.
What You Need Before You Start
Pull the copyright page. That's usually pages ii through iv. It has everything:
- Author's full name (as printed on the title page, not the cover)
- Publisher
- Year of publication (use the most recent copyright year, not the printing year)
- City of publication (Chicago and older MLA still want this. APA dropped it in the 7th edition.)
- Edition number, if it's not the first
- ISBN (helpful for your own records, not used in citations)
If the book has a DOI or you read it as an ebook, grab those too. APA 7 wants the DOI for ebooks when available.
Full Reference Examples
Say you're citing page 42 of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, published by Harper in 2015.
APA 7
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper.
MLA 9
Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper, 2015.
Chicago (notes-bibliography)
Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. New York: Harper, 2015.
Notice the differences. APA uses initials and sentence case for the title. MLA spells out the first name and uses title case. Chicago keeps the city for the publisher.
Edited Books and Chapters
If you're citing one chapter from an edited collection, the chapter author comes first, then the editors, then the book. Lots of students get this wrong.
APA 7 chapter format
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.
The page range is the whole chapter, not just what you quoted.
Direct Quote vs. Paraphrase
A direct quote needs quotation marks and a page number. Always. A paraphrase needs the citation but the page number is optional in APA and MLA (still good practice to include it).
Example of a direct quote in APA:
Harari (2015) argued that "the Cognitive Revolution kicked history off" (p. 42).
Example of a paraphrase:
Harari (2015) traces the start of recorded history to the Cognitive Revolution.
Same source, two valid ways to use it.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A few things trip people up:
- Using the printing date instead of the copyright date. If a book was first published in 2015 and reprinted in 2023, the citation year is 2015 unless it's a new edition with revised content.
- Forgetting the edition number. Cite the edition you actually read. A 3rd edition of a textbook can differ from the 1st by hundreds of pages.
- Mixing styles within one paper. Pick one style, use it everywhere.
- Skipping page numbers for direct quotes. Non-negotiable. Your professor will dock you.
- Italicizing titles inconsistently. Book titles get italics. Chapter titles don't.
What About Page Numbers in Ebooks?
Kindle and EPUB readers often show location numbers instead of pages. APA 7 says to use the actual page numbers if the ebook has them (PDFs usually do). If it doesn't, use chapter or section headings: (Harari, 2015, Chapter 3).
For audiobooks, cite the timestamp of the quote: (Harari, 2015, 1:23:45).
Run Your Own
Type the author, title, and year once. Get the format you need.