readers advisory for all discussion

http://www.discovereads.com/

someone on my listserv said this:

Did anyone notice that Good Reads just acquired www.discoverreads.com? It's geared to the Netflix method of recommendations. I was never very impressed with it but with the Good Reads database powerhouse, could be an interesting site.
Yes, I know that nothing will ever take the place of a real readers' advisory specialist but might a fun site to play with.

i have to kick this group in the pants tomorrow - it has been sleeping too long.

First, the dumptruck on Karen's profile may provide a full and complete answer to this question. It illustrates the limits of this sort of automated recommendation system.

Second, many of us belong to book groups, online or offline, while others of us remember and review books we read for school. A recommendation system based on ratings and reviews, while far more accurate than a sales-based one like Amazon [which would be thrown off not only by book group reads but also by books we buy for gifts] will still be affected by books we read which we would never have picked out ourselves.

Third, my own situation is a tad unusual but perhaps applicable to other book collectors. My collecting interests, which strongly affect what I buy, read, and review, are often defined by factors not genre-related and not classified by any automated recommendation system. My two main collecting areas are fiction which mentions the game of Go and books by authors from my home town, Alameda, CA. Over half of the books I have listed on goodreads are in one of those two catagories. Taint no way that discoverreads will look at a sample of books like Life: A User's Manual, Spring Moon: A Novel of China, Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom, The Case of the Sliding Pool: A Masao Masuto mystery, and Death of a Red Heroine, and come up with anything coherent.

that is perfect, thank you. and that is why i have been so growly about the necessity of giving reasons for the recommendations in here. not necessarily plot-information, but explanations as to why this particular human is making this particular connection in order to suggest a title to another human. the human brain is full of folds and depths - not everyone is going to get the same experience when reading the same title. readers' advisory work is frequently subjective, but becomes less so the more details you give. any machine can connect concrete nouns and provide a list of "books about chess", but there are so many subtleties at work that make good RA work like being a detective and listening to the clues and providing what should be a perfect solution to the query.

am i the only one that finds this extremely fun?

Wow, so you're like John Henry taking on that new-fangled steam shovel.

Or maybe you're more like Dwight trying to outsell the Dunder Mifflin website.

I don't know. Maybe I haven't found your metaphor yet.

now, i haven't used this myself, so i don't know how accurate it is, but i have used plenty of online resources that do reader's advisory work, and while many of them are very good, some of them are terrible.

whatshouldireadnext.com, for example, is underwhelming.

i think there is a real benefit to human-RA work, particularly in the ability to ask specific questions and get to the bottom of what someone is actually looking for. and then there is a follow-up aspect which is immensely important. i trust thoughtful readers more than machines.

i trust thoughtful readers more than machines.

You're a steel-driving man, Oh Lord.

my livelihood depends upon this stance.

i will not be replaced by a robot!

Hello,

I must say I am extremely thrilled about this.

I have been using a Polish website www.biblionetka.pl which, I guess, works in a similar way and it has been great.

I think I have ever had only one miss with it.

Computers are smart after all.

I am not sure how discover reads works but biblionetka would take all the database of its users and their ratings and using an algorithm come up with recommendations.
Now, mind you - They would be just general recommendations of things you would possibly like, so it is excellent for creating your to-read list but useless when you are looking for a specific book in specific mood, etc. Don't worry, Karen, you RA group is safe!

Now, the key factor in any recommendation generating website is their database. The Polish biblionetka is so successful because they are the largest book site of that sort in Poland.

I have tried the English thebookexplorer which works the same way but it is quite crap because their database is so small (books AND users and their ratings) it ends up recommending you all the classics.

I have always thought that goodreads could use their potential being the largest book site like that. All they needed was the algorithm to analyse the data that is already there!
I have even been meaning to email them and ask them if they would be interesting in contacting biblionetka and just buying/leasing their software.

Well, now it seems I don't have to. It seems that that discover reads thing will do just that. I only hope the software they use will take full advantage of the gigantic goodreads database.

fun karen

Human compiled lists are always better and more tailored than those done by a computer. I dislike the Netflix style of recommendations. This is far better.

i am glad to hear so many opinions on this - thank you!

how do i get on http://www.discovereads.com from goodreads.com?

that link at the top will take you to where you can register to become a member. i don't know if there is a direct link elsewhere on the site - i haven't signed up for it myself...

you can ask in the goodreads feedback group - they probably know more about it than i do.it is my enemy!! ♥

You can't actually sign up for discover reads now and you can't use it through goodreads yet. It's a limbo state but they should launch it soon.

ohh..thanks! because i tried and got no where.

but... but... this is myyyyy thing!!

http://www.goodreads.com/recommendati...

lol lol.....i dont need it, i got your thing! lol

Elizabeth wrote: "Oh no, will it be like netflix where they recommend hundreds of movies in hindi that I can't make go away?"

Or like Netflix in that they rip you off and you can never get a person on the phone in order to get your money back?

I was actually stoked on the discoverreads thing. I'm always looking for book suggestions, from anywhere actually. Whether they are computer generated based on my prior reading preferences or given by friends, or fellow readers who suggest a book they personally enjoyed, or whatever! I would think that a computer would be able to generate suggestions that would be fairly accurate, maybe only at a superficial level tho. You might end up with the same suggestions over and over, and they could end up being obvious choices that you've already read.

BUT... THE WEBSITE WONT WORK FOR ME! AM I RETARDED, OR IS MY COMPUTER RETARDED? OR IS THIS HAPPENING TO OTHER PEOPLE TOO? because it always seems to happen to me that I get stuck on pages that just wont move forward or go anywhere. They just keep popping you back to the same thing with no explanation as to why. On discoverreads, it tells me my session has timed out. and that I should check my settings and make sure my cookies are enabled. wtf? wtf does this mean? is this happening to everyone else too or have people actually managed to log on and get some suggestions?!

well... I tried the recommends based on discover, at least I think that's what I'm looking at, and well my shelves don't work like it thinks they do.

Jen wrote: "On discoverreads, it tells me my session has timed out. and that I should check my settings and make sure my cookies are enabled. wtf? wtf does this mean? "

Enable Cookies
might help.

Goodreads suggestions aren't that great either. Out of pages there were maybe two books that looked interesting and not a single book that I've already read. It's not as if I have even close to the books I've read recently listed in my GR library, much less all the books.

Also, what's the big love for the stupid book cover art? I CAN'T READ THE TEXT ON THE PICTURES. It's making me crazy.

I was reading some articles about the Amazon/Goodreads acquisition and came across this one in Forbes, which was interesting

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinj...

It includes links to two new book recommendation sites, Bookish and Rabble. Neither are likely to compete with Goodreads or Reader's Advisory for All, but I'm always interested in options.

me, too!

Hmm, was unaware of both of those.

Here's another link, for 2013 books:

http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2013/#/_

and here's a blog about it:

http://bookriot.com/2013/12/09/test-d...

there is nothing as satisfying as recommending a book to someone...

absolutely!

Oh, I agree. I like to have as many sources as possible, but I don't really think any of these other sources will replace personal recommendations like this group.

umm... no! I'd come here before going to some silly non-goodreads reviewer, especially some lame algorithm thingy. Plus, I'd much rather harass someone who actually works in that mystical real, live, rare, archaic thing called a bookstore.