I'm almost through with Shogun, and what a long trip that has been. It's been great reading it on the Kindle. Nevertheless, as I come to the end, I'm beginning to think about what future books I will be reading.
Since Shogun has been such a great epic (as you will read in the next few days in my review) I went to one of my favorite websites to do a bit of research. Literature Map has to be one of the few websites that I've stuck with the longest in my website viewing history. I think I found it nine years or so ago. I can't think of another website (other than mail) that I still go to after nine years.
Literature Map allows the user to type in an authors name and instantly see a list of other authors who are similar to the entry. The entered authors name appears in the center of the screen, and depending how similar and in what way similar, the other authors are arranged around it. For example: Dick Francis. When I type Dick Francis in the entry field, I see that Thomas Perry is located nearby. Who in the world is he? How come I've never read anything by him? I've never even heard of him. Well, I'll soon be reading one of his books. That's why I love it.
What they need is the same functionality for books. That way I could type Shogun in and get similar epics. Right now all I can do is type in Clavell and see what comes out.
Still, nine years of using this and it still surprises and helps me out. I suggest eveyrone check it out.
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