Book Lamp
Book Lamp (beta) describes itself as a Pandora for books. The site requires registration. It works much like NoveList does (off-topic, but there is a NoveList Plus now that also covers non-fiction). Choose a book and then by working through what it is you like about the book (pacing, density, action, description, dialog) you get other recommendations. Something new and different is that you can also see the book itself mapped out visually, over the length of the book, according to the criteria above. The site also offers forums and a blog (with a feed, of course, to stay up to date on developments).
Tasha Saecker (Sites and Soundbytes) discusses how matching books to readers is a tricky process, much like music, and may not work as well with an automated system as one might hope. She also notes (and I agree) that the super-small database that the site is working off of right now is inadequate and can result in some really wacky matches. For example, for Orwell’s 1984, the top recommendation was the USA PATRIOT Act (at 98% relevancy). I suppose there is some extremely perverse humor in that, but the next two recommendations were only at 58%, which is pretty weak. It’s something to watch, to be interested in, to be aware of — but I wouldn’t be using it as a readers’ advisory tool just yet. After all, it is still in beta 
April 24th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Hi Sarah, thanks for the link. I really enjoy Pandora and is glad to see it same idea applied to books. Personally I use Amazon’s “if you liked this you..” and “customers who look at this ended up buying”. Because it is based on other people opinion.
When BookLamp gets a larger database there should be a better match.
Best regards
Kristian
April 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I’ll try this – but also recommend < http://www.librarything.com“>LibraryThing’s recommendation feature. It’s based on (I believe) tags, subject headings, and who owns books in common, e.g. a whole bunch of people who have this also have that. I like it better than Amazon’s recommendations that have never been helpful to me because I’ve bought odd things but use LT for what I actually read.
Better yet, I have discovered “reading twins” through online discussion groups – and usually can get highly on-target recommendations through them.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Yes, I definitely appreciate the depth and breadth of LibraryThing’s recommendations. Quite good.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
This made me think of the old Library of Alexandria site that used to have you rank a whole bunch of books and then would give you recommendations back in the late 90s. It was… interesting. That was how I discovered The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart. *sighs happily* Anyways, it looks like the web site is being reconstructed right now. Darn.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I always use LibraryThing before purchasing books. Some of the websites I use to buy eBooks, like BooksOnBoard, have a rating system but don’t make recommendations (which may be for the best – I’ve been unimpressed by Amazon’s recommendations). However, LT’s recommendations have been fairly on-the-mark.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
…BookLamp has a long road ahead – just FYI… the shear breadth of what is trying to be done. The future is bright, though.
keep us on the radar