So Who Should I Read Next?

[sartorias]

The problem with recommendation algorithms, and some free-association reportage on recommendation patterns.

The strange thing is that another person might have had wildly different results when recommending the same authors. But when it works--when someone comes back to you and fizzes happily about how right you were--it sure feels good.

Comments

[anna_wing]

Yes. But still, recommending books for people one doesn't know at all is a tricky thing. When I do recommendations (or the opposite, is there are word for that?) on LJ, the only thing I can do is go into enough detail about why I liked it or didn't. That serves both people who would like that sort of thing for the same reasons that I do, and people who would like that sort of thing for the reasons that I disliked it.

I find Amazon's recommendation algorithms most useful for non-fiction, especially subjects new to me. Though just reading the various bits of the Strand catalogues from start to finish has led me to many, many wonderful things that I would otherwise never have come across.

[sartorias]

I'm curious what the Amazon recco will say, but I've never used it for fiction. Non-fiction, like you, yes.

Oh yes. Explication is always better.

[marycatelli]

Like blind dating -- you didn't have a chance to pre-screen, so the results are not perfect.

[puddleshark]

I truly don't understand Amazon's system. My personal recommendations list seems to contain every single urban fantasy published in the last year (I don't read urban fantasy) and yet fails to list new books by those authors that I always buy...

I've not had much success in making personal recommendations over the years, (apart from successfully infecting a couple of friends with the Patrick O'Brian virus). I still sometimes insist on lending favourite books to friends, but I never ask what they thought of them, just in case they hated them and gave up at chapter three...

[sartorias]

Yeah, I've learned not to ask--if people loved a book, they come back at me with enthusiasm. If they liked it, they might not come back to me, but often enough they say something like, "Oh, I enjoyed SUNSHINE, just like you said, though I still hate vampire books," or whatever.

[ursule]

Amazon surprised me the other day with a successful link: "If you like Gwyneth Jones, you will like Geoff Ryman's Air." The Elizabeth Moon to R.M. Meluch's Myriad link is one that I picked up from you and have tested successfully several times. I'm pretty sure folks who like Brin and Stephenson will like Charles Stross, and I suspect that the things that frustrate someone in Brin and Stephenson together would carry over to Stross, though so far I've only tested this theory on my father. Zelazny and Brust seems to be a tight link: I've seen it work both ways.

[sartorias]

Oh I see these, yes.

[mayakda]

I like the Netflix review algo - been discovering some real nice ones. But I am less picky with watching than with reading.