What Should I Read Next?

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What Should I Read Next?

by Jason Clarke Nov 12th 2007

NetFlix revolutionized the way we think about watching movies at home. Rather than go to the rental store and waste hours wandering around waiting for the art on a movie case to grab your attention, you can visit a website that will not only allow you to queue up titles to watch, but also suggest movies that you might like based on your preferences.

Deciding what movie to watch is a big deal for some people, but others are more interested in what to read. If you fall into the latter group, have a look at the new web service What Should I Read Next. For new users, simply enter the Title and Author of one of your favorite books to get a list of recommended reading. To make the list of suggestions more focused, you can create an account and add a list of books.

In our informal testing, some of the recommendations can be unusual considering the original title used for suggestions. It's unclear whether this is based on some extremely sophisticated algorithm and is entirely accurate, or is due to a very new service attempting to make recommendations based on a very small set of data. Regardless, if you're at a loss for what to read next, it can't hurt to give What Should I Read Next a try.

Tags: book-recommendations, NetFlix, what-should-i-read-next

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MCW said 10:26PM on 11-12-2007

It's all right, if lackluster. The real test will be when I rest these suggested books at my library and actually read them. That could be weeks, so I'll bookmark it and we'll see.

It's a great idea for a website though, as I have no idea what to read anymore. Anything that's on the top of the Bestseller list usually doesn't appeal to me (Jerry Seinfeld's Wife's cookbook? So that is what people enjoy reading? My lord).

jordan said 12:04AM on 11-13-2007

Hmm, I'm not sure how many people need this.

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rex mcpherson said 3:15AM on 11-13-2007

while its design is simple, it's also clean. i really like the idea because my favorite authors tend to be solo acts that do not always fit a genre, per se. So, in between their books, i'm never sure who to read, if there are similar authors out there like them. it's worth a shot...

liz said 5:29PM on 11-14-2007

This website has been around for ages-I used it last year. I wonder if they've updated or changed something. As a librarian, I've been somewhat less than impressed. The suggestions seem a bit off. It will be interesting to see this evolve. Maybe as more people use it, the site will improve.

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