What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I am looking for books based on the premise of "The art is in knowing how to ask."
Like in Dan Brown's Origin where [spoiler alert] the scientist framed his command to his AI assistant wrong and was thus killed. Similarly, in The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs, they asked for a wish which was granted, but the son was killed in the process.

Are there any other books or stories of this trope where the wrong question was aked or where the process of granting a request/wish went horribly wrong?

Maybe not quite what you’re looking for, but Gordon R. Dickson has a story called “The Monkey Wrench” in which it is discovered that proving you can stymie an omniscient computer isn’t necessarily a good idea.

And Frederic Brown’s “Answer” is a good example of why maybe you don’t want to do what it takes to answer the really big questions. It’s also very short and can be read here:

http://www.roma1.infn.it/~anzel/answe...

And that reminds me of “The Nine Billion Names Of God,” by Arthur C. Clarke, in which a couple of computer salesmen help some Tibetan monks fulfill their divine purpose. What’s the worst that could happen?

If you haven't done it already, you might find it worthwhile to check out the TVTropes page for "Be Careful What You Wish For" and see if it has anything useful.

@Peter ...yeah, not quite what I was looking for, but thanks!

Thank you so much @Aerulan! This site is great :)

As Good as New Short story: The world has ended and the only survivor finds a genie in a bottle...
Available for free on the publisher's website: http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/09/as...

Maya Running
The Wish and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine.

A younger children's book: Half Magic

Coraline

The Monkey's Paw. I read this classic short story when I was around 10 and it scarred me.

Five Children and It

Oh, good one! Also the sequel, The Phoenix and the Carpet.

Lullaby sort of fits this description. It's about a song that kills people when sung out loud, but the person who discovers it finds that there are various complications to how it is used. Can't really say more without spoilers.

The Wish

As You Wish is new YA (very good read too).

How about genies (as in, in a bottle)? Castle in the Air has two =)

Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister