[giberson]

> My idea for an 11-star experience 1 in finding new books is that Goodreads knows me even better than I know myself and constantly recommends the perfect book.

> goodreads shows me five books that I don’t want to read.

I wonder if these two ideas are at odds with each other. Imagine for a moment that recommendation engines were solved problems, and definitely worked given the above statement. They know you better than you know yourself. Would it’s recommendations likely only include books that you obviously wanted to read? Or would they include books you didn’t know you wanted or needed to read? I mean this in terms of judging the books by their cover rather knowing about their existence. Isn’t it likely or even probable that the majority of books recommended would be based on the value they contribute to something deeper than the pure enjoyment purposes?

As an aside, I remember in a college literature class I took the instructor told us that it’s up to the reader to derive value or meaning from stories. This was a class that studied short stories of early American authors. Most of which were slice of life narratives that didn’t have any apparent meaning, or commentary from the authors themselves. The exercise was to study the characters, scenery and tone and try derive what might either lie beneath the words or story themselves. Whether the ideas we deduced from the stories were accurate (and in most cases probably were not) the value Of the process was of critical thinking about the stories that made us consider and express ideas and beliefs we normally don’t.

Back on topic, would a working recommendation engine likely suggest things that on the surface seemed either boring or blatantly unappealing that would provide tremendous value if we put work in to reading and studying?

That being said, is it possible that current recommendation engines are already working? Most are at least driven by reading behaviors of the masses, so it seems like it might be feasible that that Steven king book that is unappealing to you is something you should actually read.

(This is not including recommendations for books you have already read in different languages which seems like an obvious bug, but then again reading books you’ve already read in different languages might be an excellent way to become more fluent in a new language or gain a deeper understanding of translation of ideas between languages....)

So, maybe the tech isn’t something that needs to be fixed. Maybe we just need to be open to what the tech is telling us?

[matsemann]

I think you are right. Being recommended a book I've never heard about by some author I'v never heard of by some computer system, I'm probably gonna dismiss it. However, if I've seen it in a bookstore, read about it in a paper, heard a friend talk about it etc. then I might act on the recommendation.

Basically being exposed to something enough times. First time and a cursory look, most things don't look to exciting. This goes for everything. Movies, restaurants, gadgets..