Tuesday Thingers

Today's topic: Recommendations.

Do you use LT's recommendations feature?

LibraryThings recommended books feature is both a blessing and a curse to me. A blessing because it helps me find books that interest me and are related to topics/genres I enjoy. It becomes a curse to me for exactly the same reasons - my wishlist and TBR piles are getting out of control, but I worry that if I don't take note of interesting reads asap I may forget them or never find them again.

Have you found any good books by using it?

Yes I have found lots of good books, but the most valuable thing I have gotten from LT recommendations is the desire to read outside my normal lines. I have broadened my reading by taking a closer look into more non-fiction books and also authors that are not main-stream or well-known.

Do you use the anti-recommendations, or the "special sauce" recommendations?

No. The LT anti-recommendations seem to have a flaw in my opinion. The first 100 or so books listed for me are religion based books, when I click on "WHY" it uses the fact that I have many horror-related titles as a reason. This seems very stereo-typical to me, yes I enjoy horror, but does that mean that I'm not a religious person? Or that I would dislike books that focus on religion?

How do you find out about books you want to read?

What I want to know is how not to find books I want to read!! Everywhere I look I seem to be adding to my lists. Newspapers, magazines and book websites are the main villians. Just as bad is book/review blogs - One type of book I really don't enjoy is Historical Romance, but sure enough, I read a review about author "Julia Quinn" that made me crazy to read her work. Another culprit is friends and family (all of mine are bookworms) Of course you always get that friend who tells you how great a book is, so you give it a shot. But my problem is when someone says "Oh you would hate this book", yup there I go and read it because I need to know why? Why would I hate this? Oh I almost forgot another one - have you ever watched a movie or read a book and the character is reading? If you're like me, you then think to yourself "Hmm I wonder if that book is any good?"

Madness I tell you (with a bit of obsession) (and maybe a touch of OCD)



© 2008-2010 Joanne Mosher of The Book Zombie. All rights reserved.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've got the friends and family thing, too. I've got a book on Mt. TBR that was a reco from my mom. And if it wasn't for one particular book buddy, I'd still be a classics only reader and not blogging or anything.

I like friends and family :-D

Ruth King said...

I can completely relate to your last paragraph. Especially when I see a character in a movie or on TV reading a book. I bought Breakfast at Tiffany's just because Scully was reading it on an episode of The X-Files!

The Bookworm said...

I know what you mean, my TBR pile is outta control...lol
Its very easy to keep adding books to my wishlist too.

I've done that too...I recently read Love in the Time of Cholera. I first got the idea to read this book because it's involved in the plot of the movie 'Serendipity'! :)


http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I love it when I see movie characters reading and I can tell immediately what the book is...and if it's something I liked, I love that "oh, we really could be friends" feeling.