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I still like shelf mode (real shelves -- I haven't used an electronic version). I like the surprise factor when something really interesting appears unexpectedly.
Some misgivings about the amazon system:
- I don't like the "follow-the-herd" effect of buying what everyone else is buying or things that are just like everything else I have already read.
- Poor space utilization makes it time consuming. I have a 20" screen and the Amazon recommendations page only fits 5 books vertically (6 on the Kindle Books section), so it's lots of scrolling, find the next page button and repeat. If anything looks interesting, it's off to another page to get more details. Then back, etc. Putting multiple books per line and perhaps smaller cover pictures would help. So would mouseover help revealing additional info rather than requiring a trip to a new page.
- Limited navigation choices. If you checked the first 20 pages of Kindle science fiction last week, how easy is it to start at page 21 today? If you want to browse authors and quickly zero in on a few to see which of their books are available, now easy is that? How about excluding, say, Start Trek novels from the list? Seems like a lot more could be done here.
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