Week 4

I’m really enjoying Goodreads overall. It’s nice to keep a running list of books read and a fun way to keep up with the reading habits of friends. I’m a little less impressed by their recommendation algorithm. The books it recommends to me have very little resemblance to the ones I’m reviewing well. A lot of what I’ve put in there has been modern, dark sci-fi or fantasy. A lot of what I’m getting back is 1970’s, cartoon-cover, cheesy sci-fi. Other than broadly sharing the same genre, there’s very little in common between the two.

So, as a cataloging and social networking tool, I like it. As an actual way to get book recommendations, I’m unimpressed.

Recommendation to Susan Walters:

“I’m going to go way out on a limb here and recommend Hollow Man by Dan Simmons. You said you liked Odd Thomas because of the characters, and it immediately made my think of Hollow Man. Dan Simmons, like Koontz, tends to lean towards horror, though his is a little slower paced and more brooding. Still, for strange stories with an emotional, character driven core, Hollow Man is great. It focuses on a man trying to cope with his wife’s recent death. The twist is that this particular man is a psychic and his wife’s presence, her own ability, was one of the only things keeping him sane.”