Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Goodreads can sometimes be amazingly spot-on when making recommendations based on what I'm currently reading...other times, not so much.

I'm currently reading The Twelve by Justin Cronin which is a post-apocalyptic horror SF with a virus that infected humans into vampire/zombies, the remaining population is forced to live in armed and lighted enclaves, scrounging during the day to survive.

So what does Goodreads think is a recommendation as my next book to read? A children's book called Good-Bye Pink Pig by C.S. Adler about a lonely girl who fantasizes traveling to another world through a little pink pig figurine which she then looses and has to learn to live without.

What are some of the most ridiculous or bizarre recommendations you've gotten lately?

Andrea wrote: "Goodreads can sometimes be amazingly spot-on when making recommendations based on what I'm currently reading...other times, not so much. ..."

Goodreads (as such) has never offered me recommendations. I did get one once, when I was a relative newbie, from another member, recommending a book I had better not name. I suspect the recommendation came from a sock puppet, because the book was ghastly over-hyped ****. Fortunately I have very rarely heard it mentioned since! (but if I do hear of it again, I shall publish the title!)

Well, here's another brillant recommendation.

Because I'm reading the second Mallorean omnibusThe Malloreon, Vol. 2: Sorceress of Darshiva / The Seeress of Kell - which is a light, basically young adult fantasy Goodreads thinks I should read a M/M paranormal romance about werewolves - Fall for You

I'd added ONE, and by one I mean ONE, manga to my shelves and now there's this dark vampire romance manga in all my recommendations. 🙄😳😅 Not even the same genre or anything. 😂😂😂

Goodreads tries but i think their algorithm still needs some refining.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Because you enjoyed Memory of Water:
Harjukaupungin salakäytävät by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Kustantaja Olli Suomisen elämän kulissit ovat kohdallaan: on perhe, omakotitalo harjun kupeessa, luottamustoimia ja kustantamo, joka menestyy vähintäänkin kohtuullisesti. Sitten kuvaan ilmestyy lapsuudenihastus ja menestyskirjailija Kerttu Kara, joka kaikkien yllätykseksi haluaa julkaista seuraavan kirjan kotikaupungistaan ja erityisesti sen salakäytävistä.

In case you were wondering, no i can not read Finnish.

Yep, I keep getting recommendations in languages I can't read either. Not too often, but they pop up now and then. Even funnier when the book was English to start with.

I even sent Goodreads a suggestion once while perusing the ebooks one could download from the site. Basically all other languages were being drowned out by Arabic language books. Nothing wrong with those being popular but for someone who can only read English and French, it made the feature unusable. Wonder if they ever fixed that. I've picked up so many free ebooks from other sources since then that I haven't needed to go back to look for more :)

Because you enjoyed Mother West Wind's Animal Friends: (a young children's book, pre-middle grade even)

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (because after reading about cute little woodland animals you feel the urge to pull out a giant sword?) - ironically this is actually next on my reading list due to the group read...

De brief voor de koning (because you shouldn't limit yourself to languages you actually know)

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction (because after all getting past Peter Rabbit it's time to jump right to adult literature, skip all that silly middle grade and YA nonsense)

Couldn't resist:

Because you are currently reading Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood: (a cheesy, penny dreadful)

The Hedge Knight - ASoIaF graphic novel
The Atlas of Middle-Earth
Last First Snow (Craft Sequence, #4) - Max Gladstone
Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
Die Herren von Winterfell - again, why limit oneself to languages one can actually read
Two manga
A Dresden roleplaying game

Not sure it is possible to get a group of books more unrelated to each other, let alone the one the recommendation is based on. Though, for what its worth, they are almost all books that I'd be likely to read so in that sense the recommendations weren't all that bad.

*edit*

I then refreshed my homepage and the recommendations were then for "Science" genre (ie. non-fiction) and they give me Camber of Culdi by Katherine Kurtz which is a fantasy as far as I know.

Honestly just noticed that I get recommendations in other languages when I read a translated book that has reached some kind of popularity. For example reading the Witcher series brings up other Polish fantasy recommendations in Polish and since I like a fair amount of Nordic fiction I also get recommendations in various Nordic languages. Doesn't really bother me though, since often the books are at least of the same or similar genre and I may well be interested in them at some point if they have English translations or translations in other languages that I speak.

What I actually find weird is when GoodReads gives totally random recommendations genre-wise. I wish I could remember what it was but the other day it was recommending some really weird stuff genre-wise that had nothing to do with the book the recommendations were supposedly based on (The Uninvited).

Goodreads is determined that I'm going to read Born to Trot. It is true that I told it that I read all the Black Stallion books, and most of the Misty books when I was a kid, but it's now recommended Born to Trot for:

-Metamorphoses by Ovid
-The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson
-The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

and a couple others, too, I think, but my point is made. Goodreads. Hear my words. Until and unless a child requires me to read Born to Trot to them or with them, I am not opening this book. You need to let it go.

Because I am reading Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity a history book that is often used as a university textbook. Goodreads thinks I should read The Whitby Witches... a children's fantasy book about witches... huh? The only thing I can see in common is that both books have women in them. Which includes pretty much ever other book ever written

Cat - The Whitby Witches is actually a great book and you should give it a try...

Goodreads told me that because I was reading...one of my many fantasy books, I think it was Assassin's Fate...I should read a field guide to wild vegetables for foraging.

Elizabeth wrote: "Cat - The Whitby Witches is actually a great book and you should give it a try...

Goodreads told me that because I was reading...one of my many fantasy books, I think it was Assassin's Fate...I sh..."

Well that's good to know. I didn't think it looked bad but I was just baffled as to why it would be linked to my history book!

And clearly (in a twisted algorithmic way which I'm just making up) it's because fantasy characters so often end up having to forage to clearly we need to know how to do so too... Hahaha

I thought it might be something like that

Because you are reading In the Field Marshal's Shadow: Stories from the Powder Mage Universe

- Genetics: From Genes to Genomes

Hmm, maybe that explains the Wardens?

I honestly don't even think GR is trying to spit out relevant recommendations anymore. The last few weeks the recs have been even wonkier than normal and today it's recommended M.R. James Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories because I'm currently reading Kings of the Wyld...not even remotely related to each other in any conceivable way.

Rachel wrote: "I'd added ONE, and by one I mean ONE, manga to my shelves and now there's this dark vampire romance manga in all my recommendations. 🙄😳😅 Not even the same genre or anything. 😂😂😂"

Ditto. I read a few manga in my day and enjoyed them, but I made the mistake of rating them too highly and now EVERYTHING is manga.

The same with daring to say that I want to read The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes. "You want to read that? You want to read ALL TEH COMICS."

I used to find the recommendations spot on, to the point they were recommending books I already owned (but not read) it was so good at guessing what I would like. But the recommendations have gone downhill in the past year or so. Wonder if they changed their algorithms for the worse?

Andrea wrote: "I used to find the recommendations spot on, to the point they were recommending books I already owned (but not read) it was so good at guessing what I would like. But the recommendations have gone ..."

Seems that could be the case.

I've only been on GR since summer 2016 so they've always been a bit strange but a lot of the time I found they were giving me recommended books at least in the same ballpark as the book the rec was supposedly based off of. For some reason over the last few weeks that's totally tanked. For me it's gone from sometimes quirky to completely useless. They keep recommending the same books over and over again regardless of the shelved book/currently reading book it's supposedly based off. In most cases they're so far off genre or subject matter-wise it's absurd.

This one is too good:

Dragon Lightning by J.S. Burke is on my shelves because it's a giveaway I'm hoping to win. Goodreads thinks because that's there I would probably also enjoy reading The Constitution of the United States of America by Founding Fathers

I just can't wrap my mind around that.

Dragon Lightning sounds a great read. Most probably alas, I won't be able to read it, but thanks anyway for bringing it to my attention.

Thanks for bumping this! I've seen such ridiculous computer generated recommendations here over the past couple of years that I've taken screenshots of them and saved them, but I had nowhere to talk about them until now!

Oddly enough, I was chatting with a used book vendor at one point about book-related websites, and she mentioned "Goodreads is a great place to get recommendations." Maybe she meant from other users, but I was thinking of the ones it automatically gives you and I vehemently disagreed!

Oh, and I've also made the mistake of rating a couple of comics on Goodreads, and therefore get unwanted recommendations for more comics. But really, after some of these completely off-the-wall recommendations I'm about to share, I wouldn't be surprised if it would recommend me comics even if I hadn't rated any.

So, Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke, is a science fiction story about advanced aliens landing and taking over the Earth. So Goodreads recommended this:

Victorian vampires! Of course! Makes sense.

Now I think everyone knows that Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a Regency-era romance/drama of manners. Goodreads believes this book is similar:

A slightly different kind of romance book, I think. And another vampire book? Hmm...

And just recently I got this one. Perhaps the best for last. Duel, by Richard Matheson, is a suspense/thriller about a man being relentlessly hounded by a road-raging truck driver. Do tell me, Goodreads, what you think I should read after that?


It's a good thing I don't actually need recommendations.

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "Oddly enough, I was chatting with a used book vendor at one point about book-related websites, and she mentioned "Goodreads is a great place to get recommendations." Maybe she meant from other users, but I was thinking of the ones it automatically gives you and I vehemently disagreed!."

Maybe they were thinking back a couple years ago, it used to be spot on most of the time. But then Amazon bought it and...well, something happened.

At least yours are vaguely in the right genres, most fairy tales in their original forms tend to be borderline horror, and with all those Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I could maybe see why it would get confused with other paranormal stuff, my mind is blocking a bit more on the Carmilla one, other than both being SFF...both are maybe considered classics? But on the whole, not very useful recommendations.

But who reads an indie book about dragons and then wants to read what isn't even a book but a dry boring political document (especially seeing as I'm not American and it doesn't apply to me)? Or maybe there's something about that dragon book I didn't know, maybe it was political satire or something :D

The funny thing is, you can't say the recommendations are biased to say Amazon bestsellers as two of those recommendations are free, and pretty sure Perrault isn't paying Amazon to bump up his book more often either.

The search on the other hand bugs me. Make one little typo (like add or remove a "the") and you can't find your book. Like I search for James Rollins' "Crucible" but I thought it had a "The" in front so I found Arthur Miller's play which was an exact match, very good, but the rest...instead of suggesting "Crucible" as a close second I got "The Pen and the Sword", "Dungeon Crawl", "The Nameless Day", and finally on the third page something called "The Crucible" by someone named Fox...which was an EXACT match but was three pages down in the results.

Even doing "The Crucible James Rollins" doesn't give it enough of of hint that I meant "Crucible James Rollins"...sigh. Even Google knows that "the" should often be disregarded...

I sometimes wonder if the search actually is biased to bump up books Amazon wants in your face, rather than the one you want to find ;) I've had Game of Thrones books show up when I didn't have a single word in the title match!

*edit*
I wanted to link to King's The Dark Tower, but it listed it fourth, after three other books in the same series...how could a series name be a higher rank than the title? "Crucible" also came fourth, after four others that had "crucible" in the title but weren't an exact match...*eye roll*

Yeah, really, I think they should make sure that nonfiction like a political document is never recommended based on fiction. I got a less dramatic version of that recently when Road War, a Mad Max style action book, earned me a recommendation for some nonfiction book on how to write effectively.

You're right it doesn't seem likely to be sponsored work, given the free recommendations.

And yes, the search is terrible! Many times I've given the exact title to search, and I have to scroll through so many irrelevant results that don't even seem to have any of the same words in them. It does seem to help to add the author's name or even the series name (if any) to the title, but I think if there's a book title that exactly matches a search query the system should probably be designed to make it show up first!

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "Road War, a Mad Max style action book, earned me a recommendation for some nonfiction book on how to write effectively."

Maybe GR felt the writing quality of that book was so poor that you should read a book on writing well to avoid picking more such terrible books to read :)

Andrea wrote: "Maybe GR felt the writing quality of that book was so poor that you should read a book on writing well to avoid picking more such terrible books to read :) "

LOL! Goodreads is secretly brilliant.

I've noticed the "More Like Your X-Year Reads" when you go into your annual reading challenge page has gotten especially bad the last 2 years in particular. Pre-2019 it used to give some decent and relevant recommendations based on the books you'd read in that particular year. Since 2019, it seems to latch on to specific authors you read recently and then recommends you the same book 4-5 times in a row.

For example, when I read The Long War by Christian Cameron, it recommended Bright Steel and Dark Forge (his fantasy books) literally 3-4 times each. At that time, the "More Like Your 2020 Reads" recommendations were literally just Bright Steel 3 times, Dark Forge 3 times and a bunch of Warhammer 40K books because I'd read some of those earlier in the year. Right now, because I've been reading a bunch of Paksenarrion books, my "More Like Your 2020 Reads" has changed to Bright Steel x1, Dark Forge x1, Clash of Empires by Ben Kane x1 (looks like it managed to recommend at least one book based on my having read The Long War that was NOT Cameron lol), Sassinak by McCaffrey/Moon x4, The Death of Sleep by McCaffrey x3 (just because its the second book in the same series as Sassinak). I've read a heck of a lot of books this year that were not by Christian Cameron or Elizabeth Moon but apparently GR cannot fathom recommending books that are not by/related to those authors...or recommending anything but the same book a million times in a row. Same thing if I read any Horus Heresy or Forgotten Realms, suddenly the entire "More Like Your X-Year Books" becomes the same book in those series over and over again. Something became seriously broken in that feature over the last two years, lol. The regular recommendation feature at least sometimes can still rec relevant things...but this particular feature is totally busted.

I never looked there before but I checked now and though I read two star trek books out of 196 books this year (I had a lot of manga so that added up fast), all the recommendations except one were Star Trek based. The final one was Taran the Wanderer which makes me wonder how that one managed to sneak in (I do want to read that series some day though so a good match in the end)

Can't resist posting this one

Because you read Shadow of the Hegemon (The Shadow Series, #2)

Two Knotty Boys Showing You the Ropes: A Step-by-Step, Illustrated Guide for Tying Sensual and Decorative Rope Bondage


Wow, I know I tend to not search for the deeper meaning of a book, just absorbing the surface words and not worrying too much about any allegories and metaphors and such, but I guess I missed something here!!!

Its extra funny since its so kind of anti-the point Card actually was making in this book, hehe. You know, should get married first and then have kids, etc. Plus at this point in the series the kids are like...14 or thereabouts.

For what it's worth, the rest of the recommendation were mostly other Card novels and few other SF but that one kind of stood out...when GR goes wrong it goes REALLY wrong :D

Well, getting married is sometimes called "tying the knot", right?

Out of all the nonsensical suggestions I had received, this one I received last year really had me scratching my head:

Because I am reading The Glories of Mary, GR thought that this recommendation should work for me: Barry Manilow: The Biography.

If anyone figures this out, please let me know :)

Guess while I'm at it, today was:

Because you are currently reading Hunters of Dune

Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender

Alternative money? You mean like Spice/Melange? :0)

It likes to recommend me the middle of a series: Such-and-Such Book 6! Xxxxxx Book 9!

And it keeps pushing Betsy-Tacy on me, no matter what I read.

Oldman_JE wrote: "Here's one. Because I read The Pillars of Creation, recommendation of Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President. Connection here?"

Pill...
Mill...
Fill...

I see the connection!

LOL

I always worry when I send a gift to someone else from their Amazon wish list or whatever that it will really mess with the algorithm and I will get mad recommendations for months. One Christmas my sister in law wanted the Mamma Mia DVD and a Taylor Swift album... For what seemed like forever Amazon bombarded me with Abba's entire back catalogue, every Taylor Swift a!bum ever, numerous albums by various teen queens and pop princesses along with a huge variety of musicals. ☺

Robin wrote: "I always worry when I send a gift to someone else from their Amazon wish list or whatever that it will really mess with the algorithm and I will get mad recommendations for months. One Christmas my..."

Robin, that's happened to me. When my kids were teenagers, I used to buy them Greenday, etc. CDs, and my one daughter is 30 and a Taylor Swift fiend. The bombardment is awful :)

The fascinating thing for me though was that I wasn't new to Amazon, they had years of data on what kind of stuff I buy. Why then does the algorithm seize on two atypical purchases and seemingly forget everything it ever knew about me?

Yes, see it all now, the evil plan. Hopelessly in debt, Amazon wrap me in chains and drag me off to indentured servitude in their nearest warehouse to work of my debt packing boxes. When I am old grey and tired with a long struggling beard down to my knees, they would cast me loose to wander the car park like a wraith, begging for alms from passing strangers. Good job you warned me James.☺

It's quite the vision isn't it. A kindly stranger buys me a hot sausage roll from Greggs, my first meal in days. I sit cross legged on the ground, mumbling to myself and sharing it with the stray cats, my only friends. Even now, I am not free of my awful ordeal. If a box blows across the car park, I seize upon it and start trying to pack it with anything I can find, twigs, discarded crisp packets and chocolate wrappers... Such a sad end. All because my sister in law liked Abba... :-)

For Non-Brits:
Greggs = a large bakery chain in the UK famous for its sausage rolls.
Sausage roll = lightly spiced sausage meat wrapped in flaky pastry
Crisps = Chips
Chocolate wrapper = candy wrappers

:-)

I now have a real craving for a Greggs sausage roll
:-)

I assume Amazon's "This is a gift" checkbox means they won't factor that purchase into your recommendations, but I'm not sure.

You would think so but... ☺

Ticked the box, bought the gift wrap, wrote the gift message... Still I was plagued with Le s miserable, cats, starlight express... Brittany Spears, etc, etc☺☺

Robin wrote: "Ticked the box, bought the gift wrap, wrote the gift message... Still I was plagued with Le s miserable, cats, starlight express... Brittany Spears, etc, etc☺☺"

Oh well. They keep recommending me stuff I already got, whether given as gifts or purchased somewhere else.

Robin wrote: "The fascinating thing for me though was that I wasn't new to Amazon, they had years of data on what kind of stuff I buy. Why then does the algorithm seize on two atypical purchases and seemingly fo..."

It fascinates me too, but I completely ignore all computer generated recommendations & their source scares me. I had to turn on the developer options & dig deep to stop Google from listening to me on my phone. I was on the landline one morning talking to my mother & my cell was charging on my dresser. Suddenly it starts telling me it looked up wooden boards for me. I hadn't said anything I could think of to turn it on. I didn't notice a change in the advertising I got, but I work with wood a lot anyway.

I told a guy at work not to keep FB messenger open on his phone or he'd be sorry. He told me I was paranoid, so I proved it to him by telling him about the sex dolls I'd just seen in a tech article. (They're pretty incredible & scary. Technological marvels that let you visit the uncanny valley for the cost of a car.) We discussed it for a few minutes & a few days later he was upset because he kept getting ads for sex dolls & porn. Worse, his wife noticed.

OK, this will be slightly clunky because I'm On the mobile app and there is no 'reply' button.

Audrey: yes, I thought that was just me. They are always recommending things that they have just sold me. Or, I take some time looking at say, microwaves, choose one and buy it. Then Amazon spend several weeks recommending microwaves to me... How many do they think I need?

Jim: I don't think you are paranoid. I will see something on TV and check it out on Wikipedia, for the sake of argument, a castle or similar. Tourism ads will follow me everywhere and books about castles will appear on Amazon. My Amazon recommendations will show books and DVDs about subjects that have only appeared on my Tumblr. I have a Tumblr where I post bits and pieces of my own but also reblog things of interest, often artworks. So, here we have a story similar to your friend. One of the people I was following and reblogging I decided to unfollow after a time, because they started slipping in a lot of bondage related art and dubious 'artistic ' photos. Only a few days ago, Amazon recommended to me a book called 'The Art of Bondage.' The only reason I can see that they would do that is if my Tumblr was on their radar in some way.

Robin wrote: "I always worry when I send a gift to someone else from their Amazon wish list or whatever that it will really mess with the algorithm and I will get mad recommendations for months. One Christmas my..."

Buying cozy mysteries for my Mom :) I like reading them too but I never buy them for myself, I just read what she goes through, well, I'm so busy with my stuff I have a huge pile of cozies for when I retire LOL

Chocolate wrapper = candy wrappers

So even when the wrapper wrapped a candy it's still called a chocolate wrapper even if no chocolate involved? :)

Audrey wrote: "Oh well. They keep recommending me stuff I already got, whether given as gifts or purchased somewhere else."

Well at least those mean they are good recommendations if you actually bought them yourself! Bookoutlet keeps saying "we think you'd like these books" and it was the ones I bought in my most recent order, so while they are very correct, after all I bought them I probably like them, I'm rather unlikely to buy them again when there hasn't been enough time to read the ones I already bought yet :o)

When I broke down and got a cell phone a couple years ago, I went with Apple because they are more serious about protecting privacy.

After reading a book about Big Tech, I tried deleting information on Facebook (like "movies I've seen"), and it wouldn't let me.