CoronaDiversion #13—If You Like This Book…

For years, I’ve searched for a great book recommendation engine. You know—the type of resource where you say, “I love reading The Lord of the Rings, Filming Diary of The Real Housewives of East Nowheresville, and Who Moved My Cheese, and it spits out a dozen recommendations for the next book you’re going to love.

And now I think I’ve found one!

Bookfinity was put together by Ingram Spark (a company that (mostly) provides print books to stores, but they’re expanding their mission in various interesting ways…) A fun interface walks you through about a dozen questions, asking you what types of books you like to read, which books look interesting to you (judging solely on their covers), how many books you typically read in a year, etc. Then, it pops up a page of possibly interesting books. You can indicate successful recommendations (books you actually do find interesting) and misses (books you wouldn’t read in a million years.) You can use the site to track your reading list.

Bookfinity isn’t perfect. Some users have complained that it favors YA titles. I strongly suspect that its current universe of possible titles is pretty limited (because recommended books must be “scored” to fit into their Q&A system.)

But Bookfinity gave me a better recommendation list than I’ve received at any other similar site.

It’s fun. It’s free. And it might give you some great ideas for future reads. So what do you have to lose?