YABM, YABM, YABM

Yet Another Book Meme.  I found this one at Yet Another Ann
Arbor Blog, named Bloug.
 

href="http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000506.html">Nov
16, 2006: Fie on Louisa May Alcott, Roald Dahl, Cormac McCarthy, and
all their ilk...



Now that's a weird list! These are authors of books that, according to href="http://www.librarything.com/">LibraryThing's
new "UnSuggester"
service, are least like Information Architecture for the World Wide
Web. UnSuggester looks at co-occurrence (or, in
this case, lack thereof) in LibraryThing
members' collections; sadly, Green Eggs and Ham, currently an Iris
favorite, is #18 on the list...

What UnSuggester does is to start with the title of a book, B,
then search through the online database of user libraries, and see
which books are least likely to coexist in a user library with B.
 



So let's try it with some books authored by some ScienceBloggers:

href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/40796">UnSuggestions
for href="http://www.librarything.com/work/40796">The Republican
war on science by href="http://www.librarything.com/author/mooneychris">Chris
Mooney [The
Intersection]

81
members (10,132 more popular); 2 reviews; average rating 3.9 stars.
Members with the book have have a total of 56,792 books in their
libraries (see
good suggestions).

1. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/9036">Confessions
   by Saint, Bishop of Hippo Augustine ( class="sd">expected 10.6, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/9036">unsuggestions)
2. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/2953">The Five People
   You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom class="copies"> (expected 9.4,
   found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/2953">unsuggestions)
3. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/1507">Rebecca
   by Daphne Du Maurier ( class="sd">expected 7.9, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/1507">unsuggestions)
4. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/2314">About a Boy
   by Nick Hornby (expected
   10.8, found 1; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/2314">unsuggestions)
5. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/4926">The Great
   Divorce by C. S. Lewis
   (expected 7.2, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/4926">unsuggestions)

So if someone has RWOS in their library, the one
book that is least likely to also be in their library is Confessions.



Let's try again:

href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/31173">UnSuggestions
for href="http://www.librarything.com/work/31173">Parasite rex :
inside the bizarre world of nature's most dangerous creatures
by Carl
Zimmer [The
Loom]

67
members (12,340 more popular); average rating 4.23 stars. Members with
the book have have a total of 44,433 books in their libraries ( href="http://www.librarything.com/suggester/31173">see good
suggestions).

1. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/3202">Little Women
   by Louisa May Alcott ( class="sd">expected 14.6, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/3202">unsuggestions)
2. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/4652">The Joy Luck
   Club by Amy Tan ( class="sd">expected 9.2, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/4652">unsuggestions)
3. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/10108">Middlemarch
   by George Eliot (expected
   8.1, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/10108">unsuggestions)
4. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/10284">The Devil
   Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger class="copies"> (expected 7.3,
   found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/10284">unsuggestions)
5. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/4436">Mythology
   by Edith Hamilton (expected
   7.3, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/4436">unsuggestions)

So, Parasite is unlikely to coexist with Little
Women.  And what about my personal favorite book?

href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/2184">UnSuggestions
for href="http://www.librarything.com/work/2184">Candide, or,
Optimism by href="http://www.librarything.com/author/voltaire">Voltaire

1,548
members (151 more popular); 11 reviews; average rating 3.93 stars.
Members with the book have have a total of 1,021,769 books in their
libraries (see
good suggestions).

1. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/65679">Dark Lover : a
   novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward class="copies"> (expected
   16.6, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/65679">unsuggestions)
2. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/59241">The Emerging
   Church : vintage Christianity for new generations
   by Dan Kimball (expected
   16.6, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/59241">unsuggestions)
3. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/54996">The Last Word
   And the Word After That : a tale of faith, doubt, and a new kind of
   Christianity by Brian D. McLaren class="copies"> (expected 16,
   found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/54996">unsuggestions)
4. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/1570947">The 8th
   Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness by Stephen
   R. Covey (expected
   15.6, found 0; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/1570947">unsuggestions)
5. href="http://www.librarything.com/work/59595">The New
   Interpreter's Bible : general articles & introduction,
   commentary, & reflections for each book by
   Abingdon Press (expected
   21.5, found 1; href="http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester/59595">unsuggestions)

So Candide is unlikely to consort with Dark Lover.  Not
surprisingly, people with religious books are unlikely to read
Voltaire.  Similarly, those who appreciate sarcasm and
intractable pessimism are not likely to be those who are trying to
transcend Effectiveness, and achieve Greatness.