Slashdot Mirror
Unsuggester: Finding the Book You'll Never Want
Selanit writes "Lots of socially-oriented sites provide suggestions for things you might like based on user-provided data. But how many can claim to offer you things you'll probably hate? LibraryThing, the social book-cataloging site, has used its database of personal libraries to create UnSuggester, which does exactly that. You type in a book you like, "It analyzes the seven million books LibraryThing members have recorded as owned or read, and comes back with books least likely to share a library with the book you suggest." For example, apparently readers of Edward Said's "Orientalism" rarely purchase "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine. Who'd have thought? Quirky though it may be, the tool seems an interesting way to broaden your horizons. If you're a hidebound, crufty old fogey, I un-recommend it!"
Just in time for the holiday shopping season!!! Revenge for all the ugly shirts, sweaters and every other "squishy' gift. [Evil laugh]
/whisper/ Thanks for the candy!
Apparently, not enough people have read The Art of Fisting, so there are no "opposite" books to read.
What's next? Social misanthropy sites?
Ninjas and pirates. How piquant.
It was a static HTML page containing the bibliography of Dan Brown.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Probably a better way to broaden your horizons is to enter a book that you read (or started to read) and knew you hated. Then it might tell you about some books you may like. It won't always work because it isn't tailored to your own tastes (your own likes/dislikes) so there aren't two poles in the general evaluation but at least it may give you some ideas and even open you up to some other genres of books.
It kept recommending the Bible.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Those of you who have bought will NOT like....
Zen Buddhism --- War in 3 Easy Steps
Idiots Guide to become a Stock Broker --- Honor and Ethics
The Holy Bible --- Pedophiles in our World
Guide to Windows Vista --- Kama Sutra
It might help if every Slashdotter wasn't typing in his favorite science fiction book (i.e., "The Joy of Sex"). The website is slower than a snail in heat.
Although, to tell the truth, although I've programmed in many languages, and read Wuthering Heights, I've never actually programmed in Lisp... may be there's something to this...
TCP: Why the Internet is full of SYN.
I tossed Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" in there to see what I might not like to read and to my surprise the result was a great deal of Terry Pratchett.. Of course, like many others, I love Pratchett and I've read most of the Discworld series...
I was going to toss Pratchett in there and see if King was the result, but with the slashdotting of the site, I think that will have to wait..
I must remind myself to never get listed on the frontpage of slashdot...
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
not purchases.
I've purchased many books it turned out I didn't like, and I didn't recommend.
I'd rather see a "You liked these books, which indicate the following books may also be for you, and the other books here won't be as interesting, based on reviews of other users."
Rather than a "Users who bought this book also bought that book!"
I dunno, say something that takes your oppinion on a book, such as:
"Book A", 8 of 10
and then comes up with:
The top three books for people who gave "Book A" an 8 of 10 are:
"Book B"
"Book C"
"Book D"
The bottom three are:
"Book E"
"Book F"
"Book G"
The top three books for people who gave "Book A" greater than 5 out of 10 are:
"Book B"
"Book H"
"Book I"
hmm... slashdotters unite! We could make this!
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
obviously, prior art exists, no patent forrrr you. the spammers have been using this engine for years.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
A site which suggests which Slashdot stories I won't like, including dupes?
You're all missing the good thing: type in a book you loath and it will come up with a good one instead! Perfect for changing Christmas gifts!
I typed in "Da vinci code" and it came back with (amongst others) two Lisp books and Knuth's Art of Programming (3 volumes). If that isn't a good alternative to world famous besteller author Dan Brown's biggest cash cow...
Guide to Sarcasm on the Internet ---- How to Communicate Effectively
"In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
Reminds me the Book Mill in Montague, Massachusetts, whose slogan is "Books you don't need in a place you can't find." The Bookmill is a good place to look for books you didn't know you wanted.
Another good place is the New England Mobile Book Fair. The fact that the "mobile book fair" is a huge, stationary building tips you off that there's something quirky here. This huge bookstore in Newton, Massachusetts is only good for two things: finding one specific title, or pursuing utter serendipity.
Its slogan should be "Books you can't find in a place that has them all." OK, it doesn't have all of them, but your chances of finding a specific title there are way higher than at Barnes and Noble.
You see, for unknown reasons--I assume the bulk of their business must be supplying schools or something--their books are organized, first by binding (paper or hardbound); then, by publisher; and, within publisher, by title. You don't realize how bizarre this is until you experience it. After all, even if you know the title you often don't know the publisher, so the first step in finding any specific book is to look it up in their electronic copy of Books In Print.
Once you've found the book, even if you are curious about other books by the same author and are correct in suppose they're published by the same publisher, you still can't find them because they're not alphabetized by title.
Oh, and did I mention that they double-shelve their books, so even if you know the binding, publisher, title and they have it, it may not be visible on the shelf?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
You may be on to something there.
Given a choice, I'd much rather read 'Knitting on the Road' then suffer through Tolkien again.
---While knitting on the road on her journey to Gandalung, wending solemnly through the treachorous passes of Orkdell, Nancy espied a riotous figure approaching from the shadowy North, wherein dwelt the Elves of Glimmersill.
"Greetings Knitting Lady of the Road", addressed the stout and sturdy figure, "allow me the honour of addressing you and giving you an 800 page recitation of my lineage."
The #1 unsuggestion for "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" (a great book) is "The Devil Wears Prada", which I thought was pretty good. Just because not many people are likely to own both doesn't mean you can expect an active dislike the way you would between, say, an Ann Coulter book and a Michael Moore book.
Vidi, Vici, Veni
huh...i guess amazon would not be moving to this any time soon ;-)
btw, not that great: i typed in lord of the rings, and it came back with this load of books by mary higgins clark..another one of my fav authors...
but get this: number 50 on the list was.........The hobbit!!
hehe...someone messed with the unsuggesters head..../me thinks the frost posters got to it...another one bites the dust!! long live the slashdot troll coalition!
i will go now...
Sigura Non Grata
It doesn't work. I have proof
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
A colleague points out that current sport among search mavens is to find the "the
perfectly evil book which causes the Unsuggester to generate a great library. The best try so far was "Who Moved My Cheese? For Kids", but not enough people own it."
The very fact that there is a WMMC for kids gives me greater despair then knowing GWB will be President for two more years.
Although the WMMC regular ed. unsuggestions are pretty good, good enough to keep my book club busy for a few years:
http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/12799
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Let's type in Oprah's book list to find some books worth reading.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.