What does "I never seemed to ..." mean?

[alexalexk]

Hi, I need to translate the following sentence and can't find the right words in my language:

"I never seemed to find the perfect book for my course."

What does it mean?

My version is something like "I wanted to find the perfect book but I have never thought that it can really happen."

 

[Rover_KE]

'Despite my best efforts I was never able to find the perfect book...'