Show HN: See what readers who loved your favorite book/author also loved to read

Re:Show HN: See what readers who loved your favorite book/au... by esperent on Monday December 29, 2025 @07:43PM (#46428078)

I put in Translation State by Anne Leckie and at first glance tye recommendations looked good. But at a deeper glance, what I was getting was "female scifi authors". Exclusively female. And as I scrolled down, the "scifi" part got dropped. So apparently the only recommendation worthy thing about this book is the author's gender.

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Re:Show HN: See what readers who loved your favorite book/au... by bwb on Tuesday December 30, 2025 @06:44AM (#46432321)

So Anne Leckie's books have only been picked once by someone for their 3 favorite reads (a small number of votes). You can try that here: https://shepherd.com/bboy/2025

We don't know the authors' genders or anything like that. Maybe you searched the entire website and then ended up on a book recommendation list? What is the URL you are at?

We have about 12,000 author-created book recommendation lists; they are deeply personal and may include gender.

For example, Ryan Southwick did a list on the best sci-fi books that broke the mold: https://shepherd.com/best-books/science-fiction-that-broke-t...

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Re:Show HN: See what readers who loved your favorite book/au... by esperent on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @05:31AM (#46443000)

I have no idea, I clicked on the search icon at the top, then typed "translation state" and then opened the first result. It didn't look like a handpicked list, I assumed I was getting the algorithmic recommendation.

If I'd seen a page titled "Susan's List of favorite female scifi authors" or something like that, it would be fine. But the page didn't look like I was on a handpicked list, there was not much to differentiate it from other pages.

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Re:Show HN: See what readers who loved your favorite book/au... by bwb on Wednesday December 31, 2025 @06:18AM (#46443225)

Gotcha, sorry I don't know that one but we have 12,000 lists by authors I've interviewed over the last 5 years.

Here is an example: https://shepherd.com/best-books/sci-fi-fantasy-historically-...

We try to make it really clear who picked them, who they are, and what they wrote.

What do you think?

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