Submitted by kevsfamouschili t3_z7vrh4 in books
Choice_Mistake759 t1_iy90vpe wrote
Reply to comment by LibrisTella in What’s up with Goodreads recommendations? by kevsfamouschili
>It’s so much easier to figure out what you’ll like based on how each book is tagged.
We are like opposites. I look at those tags and I find them completely useless. Tries to reduce a book to selecting a shampoo or something.
MissHBee t1_iy9jedl wrote
I don’t find the mood tags very useful either, but their recommendation algorithm is amazing. I read 6 books it recommended me last year and I absolutely loved most of them and the other couple I rated 3ish stars but could still tell why they would be recommended to me. I think it’s really useful if you know what kinds of themes you like to read about - like, I told it that I like science fiction books about making first contact with aliens and historical fiction about natural scientists and literary fiction about sibling relationships and it’s recommended me all kinds of things that fit those categories or the overlaps between them.
Choice_Mistake759 t1_iy9vk86 wrote
>I absolutely loved most of them and the other couple I rated 3ish stars but could still tell why they would be recommended to me.
Just curious, which were the books?
>I think it’s really useful if you know what kinds of themes you like to read about - like, I told it that I like science fiction books about making first contact with aliens and historical fiction about natural scientists and literary fiction about sibling relationships and it’s recommended me all kinds of things that fit those categories or the overlaps between them.
My problem is not finding books on a theme, or who fit a trope, I can google, I can ask friends or in places like reddit, there are goodreads lists, there are goodreads similar books. my problem is splitting the good books with themes I like from the bad books with themes I like! Literary fiction about sibling relationships, that is fine, but the problem is know which are good and which are really not good, but what the book is about.
MissHBee t1_iy9zmj1 wrote
The books were:
The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick — had never heard of this and would have never picked it up because of the low Goodreads rating, but I loved it, 5 stars.
Greenwood by Michael Christie — had never heard of this, it hit a bunch of the things I said I like in books (non-chronological structure, sci fi/historical fiction genre mix, ensemble cast, focus on natural history/ecology), but I didn't love it because of the pacing, 3 stars
The History of Bees by Maja Lunde — had never heard of this, loved it, 5 stars
Ship Fever: Stories by Andrea Barrett — had never heard of this, loved it, 5 stars
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell — already had this one my TBR and seeing the recommendation bumped it up in line, I loved it, 5 stars
The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager — had never heard of this, hit a bunch of things I like (folklore, sibling relationships, many timelines) but it was a bit too experimental for me, 3 stars.
>my problem is splitting the good books with themes I like from the bad books with themes I like!
I get that! So far, I've had good luck in the sense that I haven't tried any books that I thought were bad or objectively poorly written, just things that weren't perfectly to my taste. In the preferences survey, you get to answer some questions about what you think makes a good book in terms of writing style and characters and plot, so I think that helps. It'll be interesting to me as I keep reading recommendations to see if I start encountering books that I think are just bad or whether the algorithm really can tell what "good for me" means!
*I realized this might be important to know — I tend to rate about 10 books a year 5 stars, so this was an impressive showing in my opinion. I don't give out 5 star ratings willy nilly.
Choice_Mistake759 t1_iydigdi wrote
> The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick — had never heard of this and would have never picked it up because of the low Goodreads rating
OK, some advice, and that is for goodreads, or amazon, or any place really. Unless you are really sure your taste matches exactly the average, mode, taste of the people rating in a certain place do not include or exclude books because of average rating. Take a look at the high ratings and low ratings, see which reviews strike you as more you.
Great you got great recs.
> It'll be interesting to me as I keep reading recommendations to see if I start encountering books that I think are just bad or whether the algorithm really can tell what "good for me" means!
Not just the algorithm, but the data the algorithm uses, which depends on the quality of questionnaire, but also on the quality of the reviewers which rated those metrics. I am somewhat dubious it will be reliable forever but I hope it keeps working for everybody who is happy with it.
>I don't give out 5 star ratings willy nilly.
Me neither, I understood. I did not like the Sparrow much (Mary Sue is kind of my main memory) and I would not get into the comet seekers. I would not have given you good recs! ( Though wild guess, if you do like sf, maybe you would like Connie Willis more serious books, maybe... though her only story about alien contact is a kind of a Christmas romp and very different in tone from those books).
LibrisTella t1_iy91g0u wrote
Interesting! I found from using StoryGraph that there are patterns in my taste based on these clue words. I also like to know nothing about the plot before I start a book, which I realize it’s not common. But I know if it has a few of these qualities whether I’ll like it or not. For example, if I’m recommended a book by a friend, I would just add it to my huge TBR list on goodreads without a second thought. But if I go to add it on StoryGraph, and see it has some elements that I historically don’t enjoy, I know not to waste my time adding it to the pile. For me it’s very helpful.
Choice_Mistake759 t1_iy936ev wrote
> I found from using StoryGraph that there are patterns in my taste based on these clue words.
I have tried to used storygraph but it is useless to me if it is slow or fast paced, humorous or nt (and you can tell a lot by blurb and cover) that does not tell me if it is is good or not. I like the eccentric shelves at good reads also.
> I also like to know nothing about the plot before I start a book, which I realize it’s not common.
That is a problem to select books you will like.
>For example, if I’m recommended a book by a friend, I would just add it to my huge TBR list on goodreads without a second thought.
I usually do that, and my friend's reviews and ratings and of those people I follow show up first and that is a really important filter for me.
>But if I go to add it on StoryGraph, and see it has some elements that I historically don’t enjoy, I know not to waste my time adding it to the pile. For me it’s very helpful.
Well, it can be important to prune TBR but not considering friend's recommendations because of some storygraph very vague words is not something which would work for me.
Like fiction fantasy adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
that can be many many different books, some excellent, some fast paced, some with ludicruous non mysteries, some very bad...
But OTOH if it was showing me all my friends average rating of it was 4.68 or 3.0 that would be atotally different thing.
YMMV, just interesting how different things work for different people.
LibrisTella t1_iy95et8 wrote
Very interesting! I’m glad goodreads works well for you.
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