I know, I know… It’s not Friday yet but I feel a dose of randomness coming on.
It’s not winter here but I have a dose of the seasonal blues which are keeping blogging (and other) inspiration away. The editors at Best Blog on WordPress are pointing out a blog a day in a bid to beat the blues. Today’s pick, I Eat Games, is a review site for downloadable, free (or cheap) games. Even if it doesn’t chase the blues away it is going to come in handy for when I want to pretend I’m not really procrastinating.
On the other hand, I could simply pick up a book and read. But what?
LibraryThing recently unveiled their UnSuggester.
Unsuggester takes “people who like this also like that” and turns it on its head. It analyzes the seven million books LibraryThing members have recorded as owned or read, and comes back with books least likely to share a library with the book you suggest.
I decided that I’d test it out with The God Delusion, as that is the book that is still on my mind (but not yet in my hands), and found amongst the “unsuggestions” some books that occupy a very fond place in my heart — L.M. Montgomery’s Anne titles and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books. Hmmm… I think I’m going to find myself arguing with the author, out loud. And that makes me very happy. It’s well past time I read a book that I want to hurl against the wall in a fit of pique.
For you information…you are now featured on “Best Blogs on WordPress” at http://bestblog.wordpress.com/
Thank you for blogging.
Congrats on being featured! If you weren’t I probably never would have found your great blog!
I hear you with the book thing. I attempt to sit down and read a book then get interupted and forget about it. I have a million half read books on my shelf.
Thank you for reading Tylor
And, myfamilylife, thank you for reading too. That’s the wonderful thing about sites like Best Blog — they make the effort to find sites that might otherwise stay hidden, through no fault of the author. There are just so many blogs out there… And in featuring one blog it creates a chain reaction because that one blog has a blogroll and on that blogroll will be other wonderful blogs… And on and on.
Now I’m off to find more blogs and book on my shelf that will hold my interest for longer than half an hour
Kerryn, I’m suffering from seasonal flatness too. I don’t want to do anything more than lie on my bed, read a book and eat things that are not good for me. But life insists that I must craft a sword and an eyepatch for someone’s pirate party this afternoon … maybe a small dose of creativity will bring my enthusiasm back. Well done on being featured!
Thanks Charlotte. That sounds like my yesterday minus the piratification of a little one. Some truly disgusting fast food, with a dessert of chocolate restored my spirits a little. Maybe I should have tried making something
It’s truly odd — a season in which we are told we should be spreading joy is sometimes so joyless. Maybe we just start it all too early.
I didn’t want to fling The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay against the wall, nor A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, either, but both of them deeply disappointed me by failing to live up to their hype, the rave reviews they garnered, the prizes they earned, their book jacket blurbs, the hot air spent praising them.
Is there an Unsuggester that will warn me away from books I shouldn’t bother wasting my time on?
Welcome David. I’ve had a run of books recently that have left me wondering why I invested the time. Maybe I need to stop listening to the hype.
I think that the only warning needed is the amount of hype attached to the book — the louder the braying from the pack, the more likely a book is to disappoint.
Who needs an UnSuggester when the publishers/reviewers/et al are doing it for us?