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Comment by bwb | Hacker News Reader

Can I get your thoughts on https://shepherd.com/? Working on it and going to add genres and filters soon.

I'm echoing my other comment a little bit but I've been following Shepherd and thought I would comment since you're here. I like a lot of your ideas but I haven't quite managed to get recommendations that consistently sound interesting. I think it has something to do with authors and it would be interesting to know how you're thinking about how authors or writing styles are related.

For example, I like Bill Bryon and have read most everything he has written. He's good at making subjects I am not interested in captivating. For example medical history and anatomy in his book The Body.

I would love to read other books that make the uninteresting interesting but when I put The Body into Shepherd (or most recommendation engines) I mainly get other books about anatomy. This makes sense on the surface, but I've already read a book on anatomy. I'm ready for something else interesting.

I realize that might not be very actionable or useful, but when I am looking for something new to read I don't know what I am looking for. I just know the "vibes" books and authors I like, and often find that recommenders default to similar subjects only. Maybe this is difficult or impossible to capture, but it's been nagging me as something missing.

Thanks, this is super helpful! I love Bill Bryson as well :)

Yep, I totally understand what you are saying, and that is what I am working toward. It is a challenge.

Right now, I ask authors to share 5 books they love around a topic/theme/mood. So I am collecting a human grouping of books similar in some way that humans decided along with why they love it.

For example, if you like "Notes from a Small Island" or "Down Under" (two of my fav Bill Bryson books), here are books that authors have grouped with it and also loved:

https://shepherd.com/books-like/notes-from-a-small-island https://shepherd.com/books-like/down-under

So I am using human groupings to help discover books that humans associate with his work somehow. And above each book, their list title helps you understand how their mind grouped it.

For example, "Into The Wild" is associated with it based around a human grouping books that capture the spirit of Jack Kerouac's On The Road.

What do you think?

What is next to improve this?

I'll add filters to help people hone in on why they loved the book to help pull that thread out and show books along those lines. For example, if I liked Catch 22 for its absurd humor, I want to make that the common denominator on the page. Or if I like "From a Small Island" for the humor and history, picking those to try to find books with a similar book DNA.

In about 4 to 5 weeks I'll ship the first version of this on the bookshelf pages. And in maybe 12 to 16 weeks on the books-like pages, as that needs a lot more work.

And, I am hoping next year to launch Book DNA, where I pull in reader data and help line up books that are your all time favorites with others to map this out a bit further. Slowly getting there and a lot will dependon collecting more data from readers in 2024.

Nice! These "books-like" lists feel and resonate better with me. From the first list I've read Notes from a Small Island, Into the Wild, and Wild, and now some of the others on the list that I don't know, like Llama Drama, look promising. I think you're on the right track.

I like the idea of pulling as many threads out of a book to drill into why you might like something. Especially if those threads are not necessarily related to each other as that should widen the recommendation pool.

I still think there is something worth doing with author links as well. I played around with gnooks.com after someone else posted a link and within a few minutes found authors I had never heard of that had books that looked interesting.

Sweet thanks! I'll keep working on it :)

Yep the author links is coming as well, I've been working on some basics there.

I want to read more books like "Financial Shenanigans, Fourth Edition: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks and Fraud in Financial Reports". However, neither the book nor the first author are listed in your database. I couldn't find any narrow topic to match either.

https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Shenanigans-Fourth-Accounti...

You might be interested in looking at the books & papers assigned in Chanos' financial fraud class.

http://portal.som.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/MGT%208...

Thanks!

Yep we only have books in our system that the 8,000 authors we have done these interviews with so far loved. So we are still missing a ton of books. We are adding more every week and eventually, I bet we will find someone who loves it. I am also hoping in late 2023 and early 2024 to expand and bring in the 3 favorite books that readers read that year. So that will give us a bit more data.

Ya that is harder topic, I am working on more around fraud, but here are some that might be good: https://shepherd.com/bookshelf/fraud https://shepherd.com/bookshelf/confidence-trick https://shepherd.com/bookshelf/money-laundering

In about 5 weeks I'll have filters to help you hone in from those to a specific topic.

You also might like this list on money laundering from Monica, she is a world expert on the subject and did a fascinating list on the subject: https://shepherd.com/best-books/tackling-money-laundering-ri...

I just tried it. The look and feel is really nice. The topical search was helpful. Bookshelves are a cool idea and "lists we think you will like" in the footer was helpful when I found a list that was OK but with books that were too academic for my interests in a topic.

Book Title search seemed like it could use some kind of "not found, but..." Helper, or suggestion functionality.

I searched "Moscow Calling," "Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War," and "Nixon at the Movies" with no title results. Huckleberry Finn worked OK.

Would use it again though, thanks for dropping a link in the discussion.

Ya, the search is really simple and more of a browsing tool. I wanted to try something unique and get it out quickly. It is not working well; I am going to redo that more in the style of Google search. And ya I will def do something better if it is not found in the future.

We don't have those books in our system yet as no author has recommended them is why nothing is showing up. We are still pretty limited as we have interviewed 8,000 authors in different areas, but that isn't a lot in the grand scheme of books. Slowly getting in more every week :)

Just used this successfully to find a book about olfaction, which I've been looking for and asking around for for a while! Thanks for this service :)

Sweet, that is awesome to hear and thank you for sharing :)

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