LibraryThing has a new feature called the "Unsuggester" - you type in a book you love and it gives you a list of books you're sure to hate. What purpose this might serve I don't really know, but it's kind of interesting. I typed in Zadie Smith's On Beauty, which I'm re-reading right now, and, sure enough, it gave me a list of titles I don't want anything to do with, like books on Jesus and Christianity, a bunch of sci-fi by Herbert and Heinlein, and bad chicklit from Jennifer Crusie. I also tested out the "Suggester" - or "good" books, according to LibraryThing. Using the same title, I got a list of books including some of my faves, like, Safron Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Frazen's The Corrections, and also books by author's I really enjoy like Arundhati Roy, Ian McEwan and Phillip Roth. It recommends The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I'm crazy about Atwood but I couldn't even finish The Blind Assassin. Surprises were The Accidental by Ali Smith, which looks like teen fiction (one of my fave genres), something called Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The line of beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, a book I've always been vaguely interested in.
5 comments:
I entered 'Diary' by Palahniuk. In addition to other Palahniuk books it suggested a couple of Easton-Ellis books (another one of my favs), 'Slaughterhouse Five' (which I've read), and 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.'
Have you ever read anything by Richard Ford? I'm currently reading 'The Sportswriter.'
No, I've haven't read anything by Ford - are you enjoying it?
Lym, Kelly: Richard Ford is brilliant and you should consider reading some/more. Rob and I both read Independence Day and The Sportswriter early in our courtship and I bet you'll love both. Rob is curretntly reading his new book, The Lay of the Land (I think he's read them all...). Every couple of pages he puts it down and looks at me and I know he's about to say how knocked out he is by the genius of his writing.
I put in Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down and it gave back ---- long delays. Even knitting while I awaited (and waited and waited), I had to give up. Perhaps they're having server trouble.
It strikes me as being something like the Music Genome Project's Pandora application so I'm eager to check it out.
BTW---I think Roberto loved Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as well...
I think the Unsuggester was running slow because there was an article about it on M.'s favorite website, slashdot.com - and that always leads to an overload. Try it again, it is pretty cool, and also makes you ask, "Why am I so interested in books I'm not interested in?" Oh yes, LOVE Pandora!
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