The recommendations have a heavy bias towards high-popularity books. That's... not extremely helpful.
I kind of expected that on my first sample set (Ishmael/Accelerando/A Gentleman in Moscow), but even the second one (Priory of the Orange Tree/Traci Lords:Beyond it all/Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins) is severely tilted to "everybody is reading it!"
A last try with a decided "60's Scifi" slant - Small, still voice of trumpets/The Tomorrow People/Deathworld. And I get Hitchhiker's Guide, War of the World's, Rainbows End.
I don't look for book recommendations to learn what everybody is reading, those books are inescapable anyways. I'm looking for thematically relevant, but might surprise and delight me.
Doing this well is hard even with curated lists and experts, but it's definitely possible to do better by just weighing popularity less heavily.
I kind of expected that on my first sample set (Ishmael/Accelerando/A Gentleman in Moscow), but even the second one (Priory of the Orange Tree/Traci Lords:Beyond it all/Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins) is severely tilted to "everybody is reading it!"
A last try with a decided "60's Scifi" slant - Small, still voice of trumpets/The Tomorrow People/Deathworld. And I get Hitchhiker's Guide, War of the World's, Rainbows End.
I don't look for book recommendations to learn what everybody is reading, those books are inescapable anyways. I'm looking for thematically relevant, but might surprise and delight me.
Doing this well is hard even with curated lists and experts, but it's definitely possible to do better by just weighing popularity less heavily.