A Cool Tool

A cool tool encountered recently:

What Should I Read Next At this site, you simply type in the name of an author and book and the site will then offer a list (sometimes very short) of similar books.
It doesn't always produce a suggestion. When I typed in "Simple Justice" by Richard Kluger, my all-time favorite history of the legal struggle for civil rights, it came up with no suggestions.

When I typed the first of Sue Grafton's alphabet-based series, "A Is for Alibi", it came up, predictably, with "Sue Grafton: Three Complete Novels; A, B & C: A is for Alibi; B Is for Burglar; C Is for Corpse - Sue Grafton".

Sometimes the list is a bit more extensive. For Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" came the following:
Fate Is the Hunter - Ernest K. Gann

Secret of Santa Vittoria - Robert Crichton

New Girls - Beth Gutcheon

The Love Wife - Gish Jen

We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam - Harold G. Moore, Joseph Galloway

Chickenhawk - Robert Mason

Tara Road - Maeve Binchy

Trinity - Leon Uris

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - Karen Armstrong

War and Rememberance Part 2 of 3 - Herman Wouk


The system has a few quirks. After typing in just the author's name, Stud Terkel, it came up with his latest title, "And They All Sang." When I typed in Terkel's name and his book, "Working" it came up with the full title, "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do" but then said it had nothing to recommend.

Though it has the usual affiliate links to Amazon, it appears not to be related at all. The site is run by Thoughplay, a British company.

This is how Thoughtplay describes itself: Thoughtplay is based in the UK (London and Oxford), but will work anywhere in real space, cyberspace or the ideosphere.

ideosphere? Whew, that's a new one on me.