The Official Thread: Please tell us what you think...

[Daniel Bowen]

Thanks Frank.  You know, we work on this stuff every day and, it's very exciting for us also, because we can see the unexplored possibilities.  Genre is certainly something that we are observing.

We'll have to see what a final interface might look like, but there is tons of room for customization based on user preference, genre being a small (but important) aspect.

Thanks for the support,
Dan

[Colin Scott]

I have only recently come across Book `Lamp and think it is an excellent system, have been around books for 50+ years it becomes difficult to find new books that I really enjoy. So  a system that matches my preferences to available books is most welcome. Where do you go from here? Build a library on line!

[Daniel Bowen]

Colin,

We love to hear enthusiasm like that.  We feel the same way.  It's pretty amazing what we've got going on here.  I can't wait for the public to get a chance to check it out.  Every day's a new challenge.

Keep in touch,
Dan

[Emily Steffen]

This is a great idea.  My friends and I are constantly using Pandora, and we have often talked about how it would be great if there was a 'Pandora' for books and movies.  I'm so happy someone is trying to make this a reality.  I think that guidance in picking books based off one's personal tastes is a great concept.  Large corporate book chains often have so many books on their shelves that it is hard to find the right book.  I can see this eventually evolving into some sort of phone app for use at a store even.

I think you really need to work on the selection of books available.  Your selection is small and lacks in certain genres.  Also, on the interface it would be nice to simply type in an author or book title you like and then get suggestions based off that.  It is hard to scroll through a pre set list of books trying to find the perfect title to describe ones reading tastes.  Also I don't think you should charge for this service.  If you have to charge there should be a free and platinum membership where people have to pay.  Platinum members would receive more benefits than free users obviously. 

I feel like I have more to say, but I think I should think it over.  That way I wont ramble so much!

Keep up the good work! :

[Daniel Bowen]

Emily,

When it comes to finding new books, we feel your pain.  The application that you used is a 2 year old demonstration, and it looks like we made our point.  The interface will, of course, be built with readers in mind. 

We're always working to make finding a new book as simple and informed process as possible.

Many thanks for your support,
Dan

[Jackson May]

it interests me

[Daniel Bowen]

Jackson,

Very good.  Thanks for the feedback.

Keep in touch,
Dan

[Audrey Lee]

I love that you've thought of this.  I complained to my roommate recently about how I wish there was a Pandora for books because I've spent so many hours trying to find books to read that were similar to what I liked. After googling if there was such thing, voila! I found Book Lamp.  The only thing is, I think the book collection is sorely limited and while I understand that this is a beta version, I think the selection will be critical to Book Lamp's widespread success.  With that in mind, (since I have no idea how these programs and codes are written), I think it's important that you get as many people to contribute to this as possible since there are so so so so so many books and genres.  Pandora works because it has everything and I think that if Book Lamp expands enough so that thriller readers to chicklit readers can find books to their liking then Book Lamp will really kick off.

[Daniel Bowen]

Hi Audrey.  The demonstration is over 2 years old now.  Our technology has come a long way since then.  It does seem quite obvious that we'll need to incorporate other types of books, rather than a small selection of (somewhat random) science fiction books.

Each of those books had to be hand corrected for our processes, and that's why there're so few.  I think you'd be pleased to see how far we've come since then.  We are all very excited to see how the public reacts to what we've developed so far.

Keep in touch,
Dan

[Peter Kennedy]

I am very excited about this!! I have found that Amazon is not very good for finding new books just based on the ratings. Also, I love your graphs because it's true that while in theory the first paragraph should hook the reader, in a lot of books, the first paragraph can just be description, and it's hard to tell if the book will get better after. I hope you continue this project, and I think efficient word use should also be a category. It might be within your pacing code, but for instance, some category to differentiate Faulkner's style and Hemmingway's.

[Daniel Bowen]

Peter.  Thanks for the encouragement.  The video and demonstration available here are over 2 years old now, and we've been developing our products since.

Given our data and my understanding of each of their writing styles (googled it):

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/292995/faulkner_vs_hemingway_a_comparison.html

... I am certain they would differentiate themselves quite a bit within our system, tho we probably will not have a "Faulkner" or "Hemingway" category... not yet.

Thanks for the feedback.

Keep in touch,
Dan

PS with a few exceptions, our system is reading Hemingway as using moderate description, not very dense at all, moderate use of action, somewhat higher than moderate use of dialog and the same for pacing.  "Death in the Afternoon" seems to be abnormally dense compared to other texts of his that we can reference.

[Graham Day]

I think this is a great idea and i really hope this can get somewhere.  I will tell all of my friends about this site for sure.  Any idea when we will be able to actually rate books?

[Hayden Sartoris]

i really like this idea. maybe one thing to do would be to see if you can get access to the google books database. most books have at least a limited preview, which could be used to get an idea about it.

[AustinMarie]

I just want to post in support of BookLamp, and say I hope it grows and has a lot of success!  This is a great idea, a friend of mine and I were just wandering around a Barnes & Noble musing "I wish there were some sort of Pandora for books!"

I didn't read all the replies so I'm sure this is redundant, but could you start with all of the Project Gutenberg books to grow the library?  An ipad app would be great too, and a lot of "free books" apps have succeeded with nothing more than the Gutenberg books, so I think it's doable once you have that large of a database.

[Paul Kreiner]

I just want to post in support of BookLamp, and say I hope it grows and has a lot of success!  This is a great idea, a friend of mine and I were just wandering around a Barnes & Noble musing "I wish there were some sort of Pandora for books!"

Hi AustinMarie,
Thanks for the kind words.  We were wishing for a "Pandora for Books" ourselves, so ... we built it!

I didn't read all the replies so I'm sure this is redundant, but could you start with all of the Project Gutenberg books to grow the library?  An ipad app would be great too, and a lot of "free books" apps have succeeded with nothing more than the Gutenberg books, so I think it's doable once you have that large of a database.

Both good ideas.  We had considered the Project Gutenberg books early on, but decided not to use them largely due to technical limitations with our code at the time.  Those limitations no longer exist in our current code, so Project Gutenberg may be worth re-visiting.  I'll bring it up with our team.  As for an iPad app ... well, stay tuned. 

Cheers!