Automated readers' advisory?

www.whatshouldireadnext.com.

I've tried a few sample searches. The results are intriguing. Stealing a cue from a television character mentioned in the previous post, I tried searches for Walker Percy's Lancelot and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, both books which I have read and enjoyed.

Recommendations for Lancelot:

The Thanatos Syndrome - Percy See Amazon UK | US
Leftism Revisited: From De Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot - Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn See Amazon UK | US
Dubai - Robin Moore See Amazon UK | US
The Darwin Conspiracy - John Darnton See Amazon UK | US
Leisure: The Basis of Culture - Josef Pieper, T.S. Eliot, Alexander Dru See Amazon UK | US
Father Elijah - Michael O'Brien See Amazon UK | US
Crossing the Threshold of Hope - Pope John Paul II See Amazon UK | US
Love in the Ruins - Walker Percy, Percy See Amazon UK | US
The Lighthouse - P.D. James See Amazon UK | US
Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers See Amazon UK | US

Other Percy books are a no-brainer, and the links to Catholic writings and to nonfiction discussions of leisure, culture and politics make sense. I'm puzzled by the recommendation of Dorothy Sayers, although it should be noted that Fiend does happen to be a Wimseyphile. Coincidence? Or kismet?

Recommendations for The Fountainhead:

Glengarry Glen Ross - David Mamet See Amazon UK | US
Hangman's Holiday - Dorothy L. Sayers See Amazon UK | US
The Truth Machine: A Speculative Novel - James L. Halperin See Amazon UK | US
A History of Reading - Alberto Manguel See Amazon UK | US
Ordinary Wolves - Seth Kantner See Amazon UK | US
Dave Barry Talks Back - Dave Barry See Amazon UK | US
War and Remembrance - Herman Wouk See Amazon UK | US
Bringing Out the Dead - Joe Connelly See Amazon UK | US
Future Shock - Alvin Toffler See Amazon UK | US
Paradise Lost - John Milton, John Leonard See Amazon UK | US

More Sayers! Why?

The Toffler makes sense for its focus on politics and culture, the Milton for its heroic and epic scope. Mamet makes sense for the strong sense of conflict that pervades the works of his that I've seen, although I haven't actually read the one cited. I'm not so sure about the others. What does Dave Barry have to do with Ayn Rand?

Going a bit farther from the well-beaten path of popular fiction, I next tried James Branch Cabell's Jurgen. Their suggestions:

A Stay by the River - Susan Engberg See Amazon UK | US
Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn - Robert Holdstock See Amazon UK | US
12TH NIGHT - William Shakespeare See Amazon UK | US
Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy - Robert Wilson See Amazon UK | US
The River Why - David James Duncan See Amazon UK | US
Little, Big - John Crowley See Amazon UK | US
Job: A Comedy of Justice - Robert A. Heinlein See Amazon UK | US
Focault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco, William Weaver See Amazon UK | US
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett See Amazon UK | US
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco See Amazon UK | US

That's not too bad. I can see connections to most the ones that I recognize. 12th Night's hyperverbal wordplay has its parallels in Jurgen, as do the humorous take on fantasy conventions found in Terry Pratchett and the intellectual complexity of The Name of the Rose. The recommendation of Heinlein's Job is, I suppose, inevitable, since it's basically a science fictional rewriting of Jurgen.

Moderately impressive for an automated system. Added to the sidebar.