What do you think of the "Recommendations"?

[Logophile]

I'm finding them ... odd. They seem rather literal-minded, based on the plot summary or content, rather than style, which I think is more important in determining whether you like a book or not, or even the author. For instance, I have Atonement shelved, so apparently I'm recommended World War I books.

[[deleted user]]

I don't really think there's a great way to generate recommendations like that. It ought to be based on comparative tastes on books-- for example, you know how you can compare your books to someone else's and it gives you a percentage? It should recommend books based on your overall comparative percentages with other people. If you give 5 stars to the same four books that everyone else does, but most of those people ALSO gave five stars to a book you haven't got on your shelf, it should recommend that, if you know what I mean. But I don't tend to pay much attention to electronic recommendations anyway-- I get better results by reading books people I actually know recommend instead.

[Logophile]

I agree entirely that human recommendations are—and probably will be, at least for the foreseeable future—superior to any computer-generated ones. But some information services seem a lot better at it. Netflix (movie ratings) comes to mind: There's the inevitable clinkers, of course, but a lot of the time it recommends movies that I've either already seen and enjoyed or ones that I do enjoy if I try them out. Pandora (Internet radio) seemed all over the map at first, but as I've been rating songs, it seems better able to pick out what it is that I like about a song and has been making better recommendations lately. I don't use Amazon to buy or rate books, but I'd be interested in hearing from those who do whether its book suggestions are better, worse, or pretty much the same in accuracy as GR's.