How do you find an old book that you read a long time ago and you can't remember exactly what it was called?

There was a Science Fiction book that I read a long time ago.
I think it was called 'The Road' and was written between 1960 and 1975.
It's not the one by Cormac McCarthy.

In this book, there was a boy or young guy. His father was lost or missing or something. The boy found a copy of the book 'Leaves of Grass' by Walt Whitman. The book was actually a device that talked to him. It explained that there was a road that traveled through time, and that the book was the compass/computer that found the entrance to that road.

so the guy traveled down the road looking for his father and meeting other travelers from different ages that had their own device.

There were giant dragons that flew over the road and maintained it through time. The boy found out that he had some kind of enemy that was attempting to assassinate him by sending various attacks from different historical ages, as he traveled towards the future looking for his father, and he got on and off the road in different times.

The attacks got more and more sophisticated as he headed towards the end of the road seeking answers.

has anyone heard of this book? i've looked in search engines, library catalogs etc. and I can't find it.