SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Share your funniest and "worst" recommendations from GR! Got a success story? Share your unicorn with us!!

Toe-Up Socks for Every Body: Adventurous Lace, Cables, and Colorwork from Wendy Knits was recommended to me based on my Read Shelf. I have no knitting and no craft type items in there, so this one is a complete mystery.

How do you see what something's based on?

BTW, the Amazon ones are a bit weird too. I had a drum kit recommended to me when I was buying nothing but books and they used to tell you precisely what they were based on.

After buying the first Nightrunner book by Lynn Flewelling, all my recommendations for a while were MM romances some of which looked like they were pretty steamy bordering on erotica.

I've shared in the past how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows keeps haunting me - included into every rec list, GR is determined I read this book.

Here's only few occasions it's popped up: (view spoiler)[


Makes sense.


I can see it.


Was to be expected.


What!?


Seriously??

(hide spoiler)]

Oh, also: "You are Currently reading Perdido Street Station, you might also like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

Which had me convinced the algorithm must indeed pick books "others have also read" and cross reference your Friends.

I also noticed they recently changed the "because you enjoyed..." to something like "because you have read...". Which might be more apt, since the system seem to have no regard for ratings.

Edit: not completely gone after all. Just got another "Because you enjoyed" recommendation. So, seems to still be in use too.

CBRetriever wrote: "How do you see what something's based on?"

If you're on the GR recs page (desktop edition) and hover over the cover, it'll show which book(s) the rec is based on.

Looking through mine it seems like it’d be more impressive to do good GR recs... mine are all trash. 😂

Jemppu wrote: "I've shared in the past how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows keeps haunting me - included into every rec list, GR is determined I read this book.

Here's only few occasions it's p..."

But have you tried Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows though... 👀

CBRetriever wrote: "Toe-Up Socks for Every Body: Adventurous Lace, Cables, and Colorwork from Wendy Knits was recommended to me based on my Read Shelf. I have no knitting and no craft type items in ther..."

I very much enjoy the random Amazon ‘things you had no idea you wanted’ style recs

Emma wrote: "...But have you tried Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows though... 👀"

Novel idea :D ...I have been tempted to click it "Read" just to get GR to cease. But perhaps one day still I'll read it...

I do wonder what it would rec, if Hallows got eliminated 🤔 With luck: another Potter.

Those Deathly Hallows recs really cracked me up!

For me, the Deathly Hallows (which I've read) and 1984 are always the first two of the books under "Readers have also enjoyed..." so that only ONE other recommendation is visible when I look at any random book. Okay, I get that apparently every single GR user has read those two, including myself, so could you please stop showing them on every page?

I haven't been using GR very long, so I only had one instance of a funny mishap: I had marked a book five stars, then marked its sequel an angry, disgusted one star - only to immediately get a rec for the third in the series.

I also love the "based on your 'DNF' shelf, you will likely enjoy..." recs, they are so amusing.

well for Toe-Up Socks for Every Body: Adventurous Lace, Cables, and Colorwork from Wendy Knits is was

Jo Nesbø Collection 3 Books Set: The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star. Harry Hole (the protagonist of the books doesn't knit and is a flawed, alcoholic detective.

Very odd and the only possible link is that the books are very much Scandinavian noir and some or all of the socks might be Scandinavian designs

Or maybe everyone who likes that knitting book is also a mystery reader? From what I understand, they're not trying to recommend books that are similar, but books that other people also enjoyed, besides the one(s) the recommendation is based on.

Knitting is a puzzle so maybe that’s why it was a mystery book....

Ohh this is fun!

I have a good one. Based on my Sci-Fi Horror shelf on GoodReads, I have: Anna Karenina.

This is being recommended to me based on:
Frankenstein (okay maybe reasonable)
The Road (umm What?!)

And...

Wait for it...

Jurassic Park...

Yes I like all my dinosaur books with a side of serious Russian Literature.

Edited to add: I’d probably like Russian literature a lot more if it came with dinosaurs.

That Jo Nesbo compilations also cropped up as the reason for the following book:

The Art of Always Being Right: The 38 Subtle Ways of Persuation

Jemppu wrote: "Here's only few occasions it's popped up: (view spoiler)"

Haha, that's amazing. Especially the one where it shows up not once, but twice. :D Is anybody likely to have not heard of ol' Harry, at this stage? Going through my recommendations by shelf, Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone shows up several times. Useless!

I can't remember any specific howlers in my recs, but the following have all happened at least once:

- After reading Daughter of the Forest: "You liked a book with cover art by John Jude Palencar. That means you'll like every book with cover art by John Jude Palencar!"

- "You're currently reading the third book in a series. Surely you will enjoy this book from the middle of another series? That's also in a language you don't read?"

Not exactly mishaps, only a lot of books I never heard about, so I can't know if I would like them or not. I usually don't like reading blurbs because they often give too much away.

Beth wrote: "You're currently reading the third book in a series. Surely you will enjoy this book from the middle of another series?"

It's amazing how often this happens! It seems like they don't rec you the first unread book in a series, they rec you the same number the rec is based on.

GR is POSITIVE I need to read Born to Trot.

Ninefox Gambit? The Dispossessed? NOS4A2? Arrows of the Queen?

Sounds like you want to read a riveting MG story of the little horse that could jog!

Emma wrote: "I very much enjoy the random Amazon ‘things you had no idea you wanted’ style recs"

My personal favorite (not having to do with books) is the time I bought a [appliance] on amazon, and for some time afterwards, amazon was all "Heeeey we heard you bought a [appliance] from us. We know you, and so we know you would love having another [appliance]. Or maybe two or three? No, really. Look at this lovely array of [appliance]s from different companies!" Of course this was an appliance that no one would want more than one of.

Yes, so much this! Since you bought this toaster, how about also buying this toaster, and this and this and this toaster? You can never have enough of them! :D

Beth wrote: "My personal favorite (not having to do with books) is the time I bought a [appliance] on amazon..."

Ah, that's the joy of 're-marketing'. You visit a site, in 'best' case purchase a thing, and the next ad you see is for that very product... in 'best' case on sale.

I sometimes wish there was a way to program the ad system to read, if a purchase was already made, and advertising that particular item could be rather useless.

This is also, why a purchase on first visit might not always be the wisest; instead, go browse the item (put it in your cart even) - leave the site and have some automated party reach back to you with an offer (if not a browser ad, then perhaps a direct mail of "hey, we noticed you left things in your cart, come complete your purchase and get this much off").

Lest you think I was kidding...

Allison X,D

I just got a new one yesterday, too. A new recommendation? Nooo, but...



How else.

Jemppu and the Algorithmic Destiny, by J.K. Rowling

Now I'm getting recs for Harry Potter again too... based off The Shadow of the Wind, somehow.

The other one that's been really bugging me lately is getting recs based on The Deep for a book that was 1) canceled, 2) due to bad queer rep. I don't understand how this gets recommended at all, much less based on a book by a queer author with good queer rep!

I can see getting recommendations for Harry Potter books based on other popular scifi & fantasy books. I tend to think of the harry potter books as more of a YA version of the Name of the Wind too, so that makes sense as both deal with the magic and learning

the Marguerite Henry book (I loved those when I was a preteen and horse crazy) is another story altogether

I can sort of see the horse connection with Arrows of the Queen, but the others... uh...

I find things that aren't exactly bad recommendations, but obviously redundant ones.

Without getting into specifics on titles (I don't keep notes) I sometimes get recommendations naming books I just purchased, usually from Amazon (exclusively, I suspect). Probably because I'd checked for Goodreads reviews before buying, so this is no one's fault exactly -- but sometimes I don't recall doing so, and suspect that they are otherwise linked.

Not different editions/translations, which can be helpful, either, but the exact same book, same publisher, same format, same price. (I give Amazon and Goodreads a bit of leeway on the format difference: I only expect so much of an AI.)

This also happens with books I've actually reviewed recently on Goodreads, not just checked on.

(And then -- so far just an Amazon problem -- there are suggestions naming books that I had just added to a Wish List -- which I mostly use as a handy 'someday I might want to read that' list -- as if I had never heard of them. And no, I don't use Goodreads' own "want to read" function very often, partly for this reason.)

Name of the Wind I would understand... translated literary fantasy is a little more baffling.

CBRetriever wrote: "I can see getting recommendations for Harry Potter books based on other popular scifi & fantasy books..."

Yes! It's a well popular book, so, no wonder it keeps coming up. And often the unique GR 'logic' for it seems rather obvious too, based on what folks on my Friends list have read.

Still, the path from the works of ie. China Miéville to those of J.K. Rowling is amusingly whimsical looking to observe. As is the regularity of it; the go-to recommendation for every occasion.

I had one just then. Just because I read The Women in Black (a light fiction about the women who work in a department store in Sydney in the 1959/1960) I must want to read some psychological thriller set in Sydney at the same time. Yeah Sydney in the 50s but two completely different genres.

I’ve had ones that are so far apart it’s not funny before but I can’t remember them.

When I open the main page, it shows one recommendation, often based on the last book I've read. At times, it kept recommending a book in French (which I can't speak or read) that doesn't have a version in a language I can read, is historical fantasy/fiction* (I am not into alt-history stuff either) and I doubt it is similar to anything I've ever read.
*even though I can't speak/read French, seeing the name of a ruler and a roman numeral for a century gave it away.

Another thing that both GR and Amazon do is recommend a book X in a Y-book series (usually 10+) when I haven't read the first. I wonder how many readers are likely to pick up a series because a system has suggested book 8 of 15 - more so if the blurb might be a potential spoiler.

I just got a recommendation for The Art of Skyrim. Now I have a few Dragon Age novels on my shelf, so I'll occasionally get recs for other video game books, but this one was recommended to me because I shelved... Gods of Jade and Shadow

Not even because I liked it (which at 3 stars I guess I liked it well enough), but no, just because it's there.

Now that I am paying attention, these are pretty funny. My most recent funny one.



I know Nigeria can feel like another planet but it really is still on Earth.

Hank wrote: "Now that I am paying attention, these are pretty funny. My most recent funny one. I know Nigeria can feel like another planet but it really is still on Earth."

Heh! While weirdly unrelated to Science Fiction in any form, I will say that Americanah is a great book! Long story short, in my view it's a credible recommendation if you are looking for a good read. If you are looking for a good scifi read...not so much. Of course YMMV ;-)

Monica wrote: "Hank wrote: "Now that I am paying attention, these are pretty funny. My most recent funny one. I know Nigeria can feel like another planet but it really is still on Earth."

Heh! While weirdly unre..."

Oh it is already on my to-read list because of your review :) Probably why it was suggested but the reason it gives is amusing.

Tomas wrote: "When I open the main page, it shows one recommendation, often based on the last book I've read. At times, it kept recommending a book in French (which I can't speak or read) that doesn't have a ver..."

I keep getting recommendations for books in French and Spanish, but the only languages I can read are English and German. I have no idea why it is recommending titles in those languages, especially because a few of them were originally written in English (I recognized the authors).

In my most recent one because I enjoyed The Black Echo (murder mystery, police procedural) GR thinks I might be interested in: Burn for Me (urban fantasy with heavy romance elements/paranormal romance), Spy School (middle grade book about a kid in a spy school), and of course nothing screams gritty detective like The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog.

Anne wrote: "Tomas wrote: "When I open the main page, it shows one recommendation, often based on the last book I've read. At times, it kept recommending a book in French (which I can't speak or read) that does..."

I don't know much about French books, but there are quite a few books in Spanish language or from Spanish speaking authors that have been translated to English. Especially is they are very well known authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, etc.

Well, if it was translated, I'd get it but GR did not have any other language version listed as another edition so it was a wasted recommendation.

Ah, yes. I too have been getting Arabic book recommendations ever since reading Palace Walk. Pretty to look, at least ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today:

"You're reading Hogfather, how 'bout this?"



At least it's the first book in its series! But I don't know French at all.

OK. Here's a unicorn, a success story. I'm reading To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts and it's amazing. The recommendations: Servant of the Empire, so I added the trilogy TBR. I've read a number of Raymond Feist but not a collaboration, and will definitely read more by Wurts. So I clicked on more recommendations and there are several by Martha Wells. Win-win all around. :)

Wow! That is unusual! But awesome!

That one by Wurts ins fantastic! I have another in my shelf That’s patiently waiting for me to get to it.

I was reading the series starting with Harbinger - pretty clean read.
What did Amazon recommend to me based on that?
The Dragon Emperor - which sounds quite close to erotica by the blurbs and covers.
M'kay.

I just got a really thoughtful recommendation:

'Because you are reading "The Amber Spyglass" ...' and then got the rec for "The Golden Compass". Well - totally fitting on the topic side … but how do they think I did get to the third volume of this series? ^^'

hahaha

For some reason, Hogfather seems to bring forth recommendations for European/East European books that haven't been translated into English, or translated at all. Today it's a Ukrainian selection:

Beth wrote: "For some reason, Hogfather seems to bring forth recommendations for European/East European books that haven't been translated into English, or translated at all. Today it's a Ukrainian..."

Because????

That's really, really, weird.