Any good recommendation sites?

[TonyGamble]

It seems to me that Amazon and Goodreads use algorithms that force new titles to the top of recommendation lists.

As an example I wanted a change from reading novels and decided to download some biographies. Type 'biographies' into Amazon and it produces a pretty odd list of mostly inconsequential people.

Do the same with Goodreads and the first section is about New Releases. Go further down to Popular Biographies and the top one is about Steve Jobs. Come off it. Is Mr Jobs really the most popular man who has had a biography written about him?

Travel in Goodreads produces, in my view, a list that is not so orientated to recent publications.

Does anyone have any suggestions where I can get some suggestions that don't ignore the good writing of the past?

[crich70]

Sure right here at Mobileread.com.

[TonyGamble]

Fantastic crich70.

Can you point me to the list of biographies I would be silly not to have read, please?

Tony

[crich70]

Originally Posted by TonyGamble

Fantastic crich70.

Can you point me to the list of biographies I would be silly not to have read, please?

Tony

I don't think that there is a master list but the book clubs each month have some good suggestions of books to be read in many genre's. And there are the books by Jacob Abbot that feature famous people in history. Abbot, Jacob They come in epub and Kindle formats.

[TonyGamble]

Thanks.

Which book club lists?

Jacob Abbot. Yes an interesting list - but are these likely to feature in the 'Most interesting biographies ever written' ? I may be wrong but I doubt it and I also think that if I wanted to learn about any of those people I 'might' find a more skilled author.

Tony

[Dazrin]

As crich70 says, MobileRead is the best site I have found for finding recommendations. There are other sites like Literature Map or Whichbook or Gnooks that try to provide recommendations, but most of these require you start with an author you and then provide similar authors.

For book clubs, I would check that sub-forum. Many of the literary club nominations are biographies and you can go through those fairly easily. There is a list with all the regular book club selections, but I don't think there have been many biographies. There are a bunch that have been nominated though and you can look through the nomination threads. Here is one with a couple: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=241339

Specifically for biographies, this thread (or, much better, one specifically asking for biography recommendations) could easily turn into that sort of list. You could also search the "what are we reading now" thread for biographies to get a bunch of good ones as well. I remember a few popping up in there.

If that doesn't get you what you are looking for, I suggest creating a separate thread asking for the "most interesting biographies ever written" and provide some examples of who you would find interesting or at least more description of what you want. As you know, sometimes it isn't the just subject that makes it a good story but the author (Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" comes to mind.) If you aren't getting the type of results you want it is probably because people don't quite understand what you are looking for and you need to provide examples or better guidance such as what you have and haven't read/liked.

I say that you should have more guidance or examples because you mention that GR starts with the Steve Jobs biography but immediately pan it. Given that he was one of the most talked about and influential (especially in technology) people from the time he helped start Apple until now more than 3 years after his death, I don't know why you would be surprised by the popularity of his biography. He took a dieing company and turned it into one of the most famous and successful brands on the planet and then died way earlier than anyone should have to die. Of course his biography is popular right now. From the reviews I have seen it is very good, so I am not sure why you panned it immediately, so at least for me more of your expectations are needed.

As a start, my favorite "biography" (I read VERY few of them though) is actually 1/2 autobiography from the author's experiences in Auschwitz and the other half of the book is the author's theory of psychology which he partly developed during his stay in Auschwitz, in my one re-read I skipped the second half. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It is the only non-fiction, non-textbook I have saved from college and the only required reading from college that I read from cover to cover. (Although I have a science related degree, so I didn't have to read too many non-textbooks to start with.)

[TonyGamble]

Thanks Dazrin,

That is a help.

Coming up to dinner time here in the UK. I'll pick this thread up again in the morning.

Tony