I came across this new meme, Musing Mondays, hosted by MizB from Should Be Reading at A Novel Challenge and decided to play. Although I am a tad late, I figure it is always better to be late than never, right? ;-)
Today’s edition of “Musing Mondays” is about gadgets and such designed for book lovers and bibliophiles!
Last week, while browsing online, I found a very interesting website called BookLamp.org. Basically, it’s a new service for bibliophiles/readers (still in its ‘beta’ version) that helps them find books they would enjoy by filtering certain variables.
Here is how it is described on their website:
BookLamp.org is a system for matching readers to books through an analysis of writing styles, similar to the way that Pandora.com matches music lovers to new music. Do you like Stephen King’s It, but thought it was too long? The technology behind BookLamp allows you to find books that are written with a similar tone, tense, perspective, action level, description level, and dialog level, while at the same time allowing you to specify details like… half the length. It’s impervious to outside influences - like advertising - that impact socially driven recommendation systems, and isn’t reliant on a large user base to work.
It sounds like a really interesting premise! Mind you, currently their database is “mostly science fiction”. So, that wouldn’t interest me. But, eventually, a service like this may be really useful, especially if there isn’t a cost (or a high cost, anyway) for using it. I’m always using Amazon.com, or Facebook’s “Visual Bookshelf” application, to find books that I might like, based off of what I’ve already read. But, it’s tricky. They’re not really accurate… not like this “BookLamp” program seems like it’d be. Their video presentation talked of a comparison between “Jurassic Park” and another book, and it was stunning how acurate it seemed to be!
What do you think? Would you use a program like this, that helped you pick books to read based on what you’ve read before?
I have not heard of such program before, but I find the concept interesting. Before learning of this new site, I usually get book recommendations (or get my book fix) from fellow book bloggers and any other online bookstores.
Although I am not much of a sci-fi fan, but I am definitely hoping BookLamp will add on other genres in the near future. I am sure there are some readers who will find this useful.
What about you? Will you use this program?
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Glad I am not the only one who hasn't heard of these before...lol! I agree about getting recommendations from blogging buddies. I really enjoy reading their thoughts.
I hadn't heard of any of these before either. I really like the idea, although the last thing I need is another source of recommendations :P
J Kaye, Nymeth - I always enjoy reading blogging buddies' recommendations because I know I'll trust their opinions on the books they read. :)
It sounds very interesting. I'd be curious to see what it suggests for me, but as my TBR is already miles high and I never run out of new suggestions, it's going to be a long time before I turn to something like this. And it wants you to register. That makes me think there's a catch.
Jeane - Indeed. I'll have to wait around and see how it is... anyway my TBR pile is about a mountain high. ;)
Same here, Melody. My TBR is getting outta control. I think I have about 300 TBR books... I'm still buying. I really think I should stop but it's so hard to do... >.<
This does sound neat. I'm sure I'd try it out but I don't know that I would use it as much -- I rely on my book blog friends instead :)
Alice - That's the problem with us booklovers. We still buy the books even though we know we've a pile waiting to be read. ;P
Iliana - Me too. Recommendations from book blog friends are still the best! :)