Is there an alternative to http://whatshouldireadnext.com/

[chaznsc]

Which one havent you read?

[vivaldirules]

I saw this NYTimes article and thought it might be of interest. Netflix (a DVD rental company) offered a $1 million prize to any person or team that would create a program to help subscribers pick movies to watch that they might like and do it at least "10% better" than their own Cinematch software. They ended up with two teams who succeeded. But they were given a database of 100 million movie ratings to calibrate with (!). This has led to a second contest where more data, including gender and demographic information, will be provided.

I don't know how Cinematch works but if it takes that much data to build models to do just 10% better, I think we're pretty much out of luck getting something similar for helping us pick books unless Amazon does it. No one else will have that much data available.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...ew-contest/?hp

[FlorenceArt]

I've said this elsewhere already, but I wonder if this kind of search help isn't a false good idea after all.

I mean, sure, sometimes you put down a book you loved and feel frustrated that it's over and would like to read it again for the first time - I guess we all feel that way sometimes.

But really, let's face it, you will never read that particular great book again for the first time. And there are so many other great books waiting, which in all probability have very little in common with the one you just finished but that you might love all the same. Wouldn't it be better to stumble on one of those, rather than endlessly (and in the end, fruitlessly) searching for that moment in the past?

I used to enjoy the suggestions at Amazon, and bought several books that way, but what I noticed was it got me into a vicious circle: I happened to buy several fantasy books when I started to use Amazon, so Amazon recommended more fantasy books, and I bought some, which resulted in more recommendations in the same style, and so on.

I still enjoy fantasy books and I'm always happy when I stumble on a good one. But in any genre, there are few great books, and a whole mass of so-so ones that may be enjoyable but are not unforgettable. When I look back on what I've been reading these last years, I have a feeling I've been spending a lot of time reading books from the second group, and I also feel it may be in part connected to that narrow search focus that Amazon gave me.

Now I try to take recommendations from sources as varied as possible. The Internet gives us access to a huge number of sources for information and reading suggestions: this site for instance, or online newspapers or magazines. Paper newspapers and magazines. Some TV or radio shows, not necessarily ones dedicated to books. Books themselves also sometimes cite other books or authors. And of course friends and family can be a good source. I try to write down the author names or titles that I heard about that way, and keep a list of "stuff that might be worth checking out".

Just my 2 cents - recommendations based on similarity are nice, but let's also look for new reading pleasures once in a while

[MelC]

I totally agree with the comments about the vicious circle. One of the things I like to do is find someone else on a site like Goodreads that really liked a book I liked and then I go through their bookshelf for the other books they really liked. You often come up with books of the same genre and then sometimes they will recommend something completely different. Knowing that we had the same taste in one or two books gives me the confidence to explore some of the other ones they liked.

Mel