Thanks, this is super helpful! I love Bill Bryson as well :)
Yep, I totally understand what you are saying, and that is what I am working toward. It is a challenge.
Right now, I ask authors to share 5 books they love around a topic/theme/mood. So I am collecting a human grouping of books similar in some way that humans decided along with why they love it.
For example, if you like "Notes from a Small Island" or "Down Under" (two of my fav Bill Bryson books), here are books that authors have grouped with it and also loved:
So I am using human groupings to help discover books that humans associate with his work somehow. And above each book, their list title helps you understand how their mind grouped it.
For example, "Into The Wild" is associated with it based around a human grouping books that capture the spirit of Jack Kerouac's On The Road.
What do you think?
What is next to improve this?
I'll add filters to help people hone in on why they loved the book to help pull that thread out and show books along those lines. For example, if I liked Catch 22 for its absurd humor, I want to make that the common denominator on the page. Or if I like "From a Small Island" for the humor and history, picking those to try to find books with a similar book DNA.
In about 4 to 5 weeks I'll ship the first version of this on the bookshelf pages. And in maybe 12 to 16 weeks on the books-like pages, as that needs a lot more work.
And, I am hoping next year to launch Book DNA, where I pull in reader data and help line up books that are your all time favorites with others to map this out a bit further. Slowly getting there and a lot will dependon collecting more data from readers in 2024.
Nice! These "books-like" lists feel and resonate better with me. From the first list I've read Notes from a Small Island, Into the Wild, and Wild, and now some of the others on the list that I don't know, like Llama Drama, look promising. I think you're on the right track.
I like the idea of pulling as many threads out of a book to drill into why you might like something. Especially if those threads are not necessarily related to each other as that should widen the recommendation pool.
I still think there is something worth doing with author links as well. I played around with gnooks.com after someone else posted a link and within a few minutes found authors I had never heard of that had books that looked interesting.
Yep, I totally understand what you are saying, and that is what I am working toward. It is a challenge.
Right now, I ask authors to share 5 books they love around a topic/theme/mood. So I am collecting a human grouping of books similar in some way that humans decided along with why they love it.
For example, if you like "Notes from a Small Island" or "Down Under" (two of my fav Bill Bryson books), here are books that authors have grouped with it and also loved:
https://shepherd.com/books-like/notes-from-a-small-island https://shepherd.com/books-like/down-under
So I am using human groupings to help discover books that humans associate with his work somehow. And above each book, their list title helps you understand how their mind grouped it.
For example, "Into The Wild" is associated with it based around a human grouping books that capture the spirit of Jack Kerouac's On The Road.
What do you think?
What is next to improve this?
I'll add filters to help people hone in on why they loved the book to help pull that thread out and show books along those lines. For example, if I liked Catch 22 for its absurd humor, I want to make that the common denominator on the page. Or if I like "From a Small Island" for the humor and history, picking those to try to find books with a similar book DNA.
In about 4 to 5 weeks I'll ship the first version of this on the bookshelf pages. And in maybe 12 to 16 weeks on the books-like pages, as that needs a lot more work.
And, I am hoping next year to launch Book DNA, where I pull in reader data and help line up books that are your all time favorites with others to map this out a bit further. Slowly getting there and a lot will dependon collecting more data from readers in 2024.