whichbook.net - is this a valid way to choose what to read?

go to ILE's book threads. there is plenty of discussion there and I'm sure you'll get something to read.

its the part of ILE that interests me the most.

um, just checked the site and it seems a bit silly.

I also read reviews and browse the shelves.

Sometimes its a recommendation by soemone I like too.

Actually the one cute thing about that site is how it links you to your local library catalogue.

I quite like to choose books entirely at random, although having said that the chances of me actually reading, say, a biography of Douglas Hurd or a guide to playing chess are slim. Maybe I just like to THINK I'm open-minded.

A couple of years ago I decided that I was choosing books rather conservatively and that I should branch out more. I found random really difficult to achieve, though, so I think this is a good idea, though I have a hard time trusting the reviewers.

If one of its sliders was:
Scando Misery>---------------->Not Scando Misery
that would be better.

This mail was brough to you by a sudden fear about the spelling of the word 'miserabilism' (sp?).

(Yes yes the spelling of 'brought' is of no consequence to me)

i guess it's cute but i'd rather see something like allfiction.com... that would list an author, their works in chronological order with reviews, and links to similar authors and formal connections. i started making allmusic ripoff pages for authors i like once but never kept up with it.

I distrust 'similar author' connections, in general.

Matt found an even more tenuous site once that put authors in a kind of spiral of similarity around your central author, the further out the less similar... can't remember where that was though.