# Have you played with The Book Seer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330 "2009-06-29T12:40:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/1 "2009-06-29T12:40:05Z")
Here’s a fun little tool for book readers: type in a book you just read and it spits out a list of books you should check out. I have only played with it a little, so I don’t know if it will be all that useful, but it looks fun. > **[The Book Seer | What should I read next](http://bookseer.com/)** > > Read a great book and wondering what to read next? Ask the famous bookseer ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/2 "2009-06-29T13:05:40Z")
1st 2 books I tried, it came back blank. Went with Forest Mage by Robin Hobb & Enchanter’s End Game by David Eddings ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/3 "2009-06-29T13:08:15Z")
Interesting – but it just gave me “Amazon recommends,” which I can get directly from Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/4 "2009-06-29T13:24:24Z")
No joy on _Nine Princes in Amber_… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/5 "2009-06-29T14:18:34Z")
I’m so disappointed. I got some good results back from _The Name Of The Wind._ Ah well, it may get better. I’ll watch it a while. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/6 "2009-06-29T17:13:43Z")
It came up blank with all four books I tried: Maverick by Lora Leigh (both pretty newly released and paperback (and something I’m not really in the mood for another book just like it)) Knit Two by Kate Jacobs (also pretty newly released) The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice (released in 2007) Mr. and Miss Anonymous by Fern Michaels(back to the pretty newly released) But assuming that these books are pretty reperesentative of my reading taste . . . I’m not impressed by the total blankness and probably won’t be back. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/7 "2009-06-29T17:29:11Z")
It doesn’t come up blank for me on any of the searches that have been mentioned here. After looking at it, it apparently uses the APIs from \*Amazon \*and _The Library Thing_ to consolidate recommendations. As Twickster pointed out, you can get those on each respective site. It \*does \*seem to shoot blanks quite often for _The Library Thin_g. (Actually, so far I haven’t seen _any_ recommendation from The Library Thing.) The one - perhaps only - advantage that I see over Amazon’s recommendations is that I can ask it about a specific book and get recommendations based on that book. I do not know how to do that at Amazon. At Amazon, I may get eventually get a recommendation based on my liking for The Name Of the Wind, but I don’t know how to do that “on demand.” (Is there a way?) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/8 "2009-06-29T17:39:12Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > The one - perhaps only - advantage that I see over Amazon’s recommendations is that I can ask it about a specific book and get recommendations based on that book. I do not know how to do that at Amazon. At Amazon, I may get eventually get a recommendation based on my liking for The Name Of the Wind, but I don’t know how to do that “on demand.” (Is there a way?) Yes. Search for the book, and just below the book info and before the editorial reviews, there’s a section called “Customers who bought this item also bought” ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/9 "2009-06-29T17:59:57Z")
Oops-forgot to turn off No Script this morning-for Zelazny it gave me 10 recs, but as someone else said upthread it’s just links to Amazon’s recs, which I have always had a big problem with. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/10 "2009-06-29T18:59:38Z")
I typed in “Thief of Time”, and it told me to read… Terry’s other books. Thanks, but if I’ve read one book by an author, I can figure out the “check out his other books” part on my own. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/11 "2009-06-29T19:15:21Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I typed in “Thief of Time”, and it told me to read… Terry’s other books. Thanks, but if I’ve read one book by an author, I can figure out the “check out his other books” part on my own. Yeah, that is one of my biggest complaints with Amazon’s recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/12 "2009-06-30T01:32:14Z")
I just checked out the link again, and it tells me I ought to upgrade Internet Explorer to be there. So that may be at least part of the reason it came up blank for me earlier. But I’m not in the mood to investigate further at present. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-played-with-the-book-seer/501330/13 "2009-06-30T01:51:34Z")
I tried Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Jean Plaidy & Fay Weldon & just got recommended more of their books. I would see it being more useful if for Jean Plaidy they recommended Philippa gregory ( I _hate_ Philippa Gregory, but she also writes historical novels) Maybe they will have that capability further down the track. I’m going to bookmark it & try again in a month or so. 🙂