Marek Gibney's Literature-Map, part of his online A.I. project Gnooks and Gnod, is a bit like the Visual Thesaurus, only with author names instead of synonyms.
Now, if I'm interpreting this map correctly, readers of my Lynn Viehl novels are more likely to also read Kresley Cole, J.R. Ward, Ginna Gray and Judith Ivory (these being the names closest to mine in the middle) and not as likely to read Julie Garwood, Jim Butcher or Christine Feehan. I don't know how accurate that is, but to keep my ego in check, none of my other pseudonyms made the map.
Also, as my good deed for the day: Online book cataloguing heaven LibraryThing is giving away free ARCs of books to folks interested in reviewing them -- see details, requirements, and the list of currently available ARC titles here.
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"LibraryThing is giving away free ARCs of books to folks interested in reviewing them"
ReplyDeleteOne of those free books should be awfully familiar to people who know my name ;-)
Sadly, it's only available to Aussie LibraryThing members, but then so are the rest of my books.
I'm wondering where the data for this comes from. There are some interesting patterns... for instance there's a tightly bound cluster that consists of Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross and John Scalzi. Nobody else is as close to any of these three as they are to each other.
ReplyDeleteNow, Doctorow and Stross I'd expect... they write fiction that's quite similar in many ways, but Scalzi's work is somewhat different IMO. What does link these three is they're all well-known bloggers. I don't know how this has influenced the data, but it does appear to have done.
Lol, the only other author among those that come with your name I have read is Jim Butcher.
ReplyDeleteI defy statistics, as usual.
Though the results for GRR Martin and Bernard Cornwell fit better; I've read almost all authors that come with those names.
That thing is quite the time sink. :)
ReplyDeleteI've played around with a number of names now and noticed that my taste in female authors is more eclectic - none of them has many others in train I've read, while the hits with male authors are a lot more consistent. I wonder if it's gender specific, or genre specific - I read more Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fiction (preferably with battles, books about Henry's many wives not so much) and SciFi than Urban or Paranormal.
I read almost all of those authors (with 2 exceptions), so dunno what that says. My name didn't come up with any returns. Sniff.
ReplyDeleteI'd have ot say your map needs tweaked. There's only one author I haven't read, 'fraid I've never even heard of and that's Ms. Gray. I read all the others including the ones listed as not as likely to be read.
ReplyDeleteI do thank you for the link to LibraryThing. I just joined them after reading your post, and signed up for one free ARC. I tried joining shelfari, but was told my browser wasn't compatible with theirs, oh well...
This is neat. It gave me some new authors to look for in the bookstore, at any rate.
ReplyDeleteBut I wonder how the data is gathered?
Interesting! Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteEchoing Margaret Yang - I wonder where/how the author names were obtained for this map?
My Diana Gabaldon test drive included 4 authors that I like. So obviously I must try Sara Donati/Rosana Lippi as she was close to the center. :)
Thanks for the Literature Map. You come up with some great places to visit.
ReplyDeleteAs for how the Map is being built or data collection, it seems to be the info you enter on the main Literature page. Marek asks for your input in Gnod's Suggestions.
I'll have to check it out---I read Lynn Viehl, J.R. Ward, Kresley Cole, Ginna Gray and Christine Feehan but have never read Ivory, Garwood or Butcher. Although I do have a couple of Shannon Butcher's books in my TBR pile and she is Jim's wife.
ReplyDeleteHmmm I love JR Ward, Jim Butcher and your books...hmm, I guess it's a bit inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteJusy, thanks for finding the source of the info gathering -- I just tried it out myself and it was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteIf you all want to contribute your reading preferences and add new author info to the project, you start here: http://www.gnooks.com/trip.php