Lifehacker’s got a list of the “Five Best Book Recommendation Services.” We’d like to add, ahem, independent booksellers. Although actually…you know what, screw being polite. We’re throwing down. We challenge anything and anyone to a recommendations-off, because we still think individual experience and personal attention are better than any database or line of code. If you just want general recs, check out our Staff Recommends page, but we also welcome you to comment with a favorite title or genre or anything else, and we’ll tell you some other things we think you’ll like. Come on, hit us! It’ll be just like John Henry vs. the steam engine…only hopefully without us keeling over dead at the end.
Spread the world! We challenge all-comers. May the best rec win!
Gosh, I love aggressive-bordering-on-hostile attempts to be helpful. How can I not respond? Okay, Diesel: the last twelve months have been a banner year for great literary nonfiction: John D’Agata’s “About a Mountain,” Eula Biss’s “Notes from No Man’s Land,” Anne Carson’s “Nox,” David Shields’s “Reality Hunger” (eat it, novelists!). So, along those lines, what else you got?
Ooh, a challenge! I shall try not to be slightly intimidated when I tell you some of my favorite nonfiction finds from the past year: Javier Marias’ “Written Lives,” Elif Batuman’s “The Possessed,” and Tom Bissell’s “Extra Lives.” Plus my coworker Kim, who was also nuts about “About a Mountain,” loved Ted Conover’s “The Routes of Man.” I hope you find something you like in there! And take pity on those poor novelists.
Alrighty! Batuman lost me at the cover, which is shallow, I know, but still. But I’ll check out the others…
I get plenty of recommendations from my friends and the pushers at my local indie, but I would like to note that LibraryThing includes user-generated recommendations, not just automated recs.
I actually really like GoodReads’ recommendations service, too, which also involves real people. Still indie booksellers deserve some love, too, don’t you think? *growls menacingly and ineffectually at LifeHacker, the world*