I’m fascinated by LibraryThing’s new UnSuggester, unveiled Sunday along with their “real” recommender system. UnSuggester gives you opposites instead of similar titles.
For example, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky overlaps least with Daughters of the Moon by Lynne Ewing. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins overlaps least with Wild at Heart: Discovering the Passionate Soul of a Man by John Eldredge.
It could make an interesting collection development tool–or at least a fun way to expand your horizons a bit, even if you don’t read the opposites.
You can read more about UnSuggester and BookSuggester (the actual recommender system) at the LibraryThing Blog. And you can try them out for yourself even if you don’t have a LibraryThing account.
“Ann Coulter and David Sedaris do not see eye-to-eye.” Entertaining for sure, but this new librarything feature sounds like it could be a pretty handy tool. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?