(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

This site: http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester is quite fun. It tries to guess what books you are unlikely to own, based on one volume in your collection.

It is, however, a bit buggy - or rather, it suggests rather odd tastes among its audience. I suppose I can believe that not many people who own Cold Comfort Farm go in for evangelical 'inspirational reading', though arguably Amos is funnier if you know a bit about low church sterotypes. But while, again, it's highly unlikely that a fan of The Nine Tailors would give house room to the unspeakable Left Behind series, I do find it a tiny bit implausible that there are no Sayers fans other than me who like Harry Potter. (In fact, I know it's not true!)

But that could be a function of the people using Library Thing. On the other hand, I can't see any plausible reason why people who own the Lord of the Rings should be considered vanishingly unlikely to own The Hobbit....

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Come to that, sticking in 'The School at the Chalet' produced no less than six 'unlikely' books which I own in addition to it.

But, as you can see, this isn't stopping me wasting far too much time...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

With the exception of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which I don’t own, but which I have read, and is certainly not on the No! No! Never! List, the one for Fire from Heaven was near perfect, if you assume that of course I don't own the Potter boxed set - how could I wait long enough? The other books I put in didn't have another owners. Probably a good thing (alas! they've sold out of "At the Sheikh's Command", so I am going to have to go with "Bedded by the Desert King" instead. My mind is already boggling).

[tree_and_leaf]

Must just be me then :)

they've sold out of "At the Sheikh's Command", so I am going to have to go with "Bedded by the Desert King" instead

The MLC of romance fiction?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

The MLC of romance fiction?

It really does appear so.

[prelud.livejournal.com]

It`s fun! So far it seems that unsuggestions to most of my books are Sophie Kinsella books. It`s true, I never read her and never intend to.
The example book pairs on the side of the page cracked me up. (The baby book/A confederacy of dunces, F.A. Hayek/The Devil wears Prada... This one is the best: Critique of pure reason/Confessions of a shopaholic. I hated Kant and know I would hate Kinsella too.)

I like Dorothy Sayers too.

I`ll play with unsuggester more when I have time, it`s fun.

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, it's great fun, isn't it?

Kant is much better in the original, I think, as if nothing else he wrote quite good German prose - but I don't think anything will redeem Kinsella....

[eagles-rock.livejournal.com]

Quite fascinating once you get into it - Barchester Towers unsuggests Stephen King (fair enough!), Janet Evanovitch, Harry Potter and Books about the Bible. I boggled at this, until I read some of the blurb about one of these books and realised that Trollope would have eviscerated it.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenanace unsuggests historical romance, and Books about the Bible. OK, I'm on my first hist. romance in 20 years. Appears therefore to be compatible with knitting and vampires.

Grapes of Wrath unsuggests Star Wars, Knitting, Vampires, and Books about the Bible. Not too bad, as it happens.

The Bible (KJV; well, I have read chunks of it, if not books about it) unsuggests modern rubbish (read and unread), Terry Pratchett, 'Tales of the City' and anti-consumerist works. Seems basically anti-1990's and suggests a rather polarised buying community.

[tree_and_leaf]

The prevelance of the Books about the Bible as unsuggestions for almost anything I put in, other than Lewis, certainly suggests that there are a lot of fundies out there who don't read anything outside their own particular ghetto. Personally, I see nothing contradictory about reading the Bible and Pratchett.

I stuck in 'Witch Wood', in the hope that it would UnRecommend Calvin's Institutes, but alas it doesn't have enough readers to produce unrecommendations, though it did spit out a Member Review, which described it as about a pastor trying to protect his Protestant congregation against witchcraft, which is - almost sort of true, except it's really about how religious extremism, especially of the perverted Calvinist variety, corrupts.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I whacked in what I'm reading at the moment (Gulliver's Travels; teaching it) and got back a lot of stuff by a theologian called John Piper, who seems to be against professionalism in the priesthood. Which sort of figures, though I think it would only really work if Piper happens to be a fan of Robert Walpole and imposing copper ha'penny bits on Ireland as well.

Here via oursin & like your medieval and Patrick O'Brian icons.

[tree_and_leaf]

Thanks - though I can't take any credit for the Patrick O'Brian one. Come to that, I suppose I didn't actually paint Walther von der Vogleweide either, but I did make the icon...

Anyway, nice to meet you!

hello

[itinerantsphinx.livejournal.com]

That seems to be some further time disappeared, never to return. Ah well. Though am slightly confused as to why putting in Wildred Thesiger's 'Arabian Sands' should come up with an unsuggestion of Tolkien's tales of wandering and adventure.

Oh, was supposed to be introducing myself. Am also an ex-St Andrews person and thinking of returning to post-grad next Sep probably in Late Antique / Byzantine things. Not quite Mediaeval - but close enough that I'd like to add you if that would be ok? My journal's not that riveting, esp at the moment, but it does go through better phases sometimes...