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kevsfamouschili OP t1_iy8bp5h wrote

Well that basically explains it. I swear I thought it said personalized but maybe that was an assumption. Thanks!

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lyrasbookshelf t1_iy8bzvg wrote

Yeah, it says 'Because you enjoyed [insert title]', but it's still completely random and not at all relevant. It has based recommendations on books I rated really low too, so they're just full of it 😄

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mycleverusername t1_iy8fv8z wrote

That doesn't mean it's random. It just means that it's not accounting for the stars. It's giving equal weight to 1 star books and 5 star and recommending based on the simple fact that you are (or were) interested in those titles.

If you curate your shelves it will recommend based on each shelf and be more relevant.

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lyrasbookshelf t1_iy99vi9 wrote

But it is random. It's recommending me things that have nothing to do with the books I have on my shelves. It's even recommending me books in languages I don't speak. In any case, it's no big deal to me because I don't rely on those recommendations to find books. I just get a tiny kick out of seeing what random books it shows me next time I visit the page.

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Separate-Grocery-815 t1_iy8pebi wrote

I get recommended so many celebrity memoirs based on books I rated 1-2 stars. I’ve never shelved a celebrity memoir on gr. Drives me insane.

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rowan_damisch t1_iy99kxg wrote

Goodreads keeps recommending me whodunnits after I read a murder-free book about boxers. Not only do those books have nothing in common with the novel I read, I also rated almost all the murder mysteries I read badly.

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non_avian t1_iy9h2e0 wrote

And yet you kept reading them

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rowan_damisch t1_iy9pt2g wrote

"Kept reading them" is a stretch because it's a while since I read the last murder mystery, but well... I had to find out somehow if I dislike the entire genre or just picked a bunch of books I would've disliked anyways.

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civilwar142pa t1_iy92w1p wrote

If you want good recs off goodreads, find a book you like and check which "lists" it's been added to by other users. I've found a bunch of gems that way.

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legalizemonapizza t1_iybp1rp wrote

so hard to take goodreads lists seriously when they always promote the same five lists which seem to all have a ton of overlap and also imply that you aren't allowed to die until you read at LEAST these 20,000+ popular titles

bruh if I live fifty more years at fifty books a year (optimistic), I'd be able to read less than a tenth of the contents of some of these MUST READ lists.

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skullfullofbooks t1_iy912j8 wrote

On the Goodreads website you can also turn on and off what shelves are used in their recommendations. I used to like their recs but a lot of them were put of print so I haven't checked them out in a while. There s a "top picks for you" on the app but that just gave me a broad and seemingly random selection of high rated books in the genre.

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non_avian t1_iy91qg5 wrote

I have 150 rated books, and my suggestions sucked based on that. I added a "want to read" shelf of a bit under 100 books and it tightened up the suggestions a lot. It shows me a lot of good stuff I wouldn't have found otherwise

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