Everyone is familar with the Amazon-style “Customers who liked X also liked Y” recommendation system. This is called collaborative filtering and it works very well for retailers of all stripes.
Since ncvrs captures book “likes” as well as “dislikes” I thought it would be fun to try a slight variation using an iconic novel. These results are based on 100,000 anonymized user swipes generated since the app went live.
The top books disliked by likers of The Catcher in the Rye are…
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
If only Claire Randall had been able to use the fencing equipment that Holden Caulfield left on the subway she could have dispatched the villanous Randall earlier.
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth
The Mehra family may be more complicated than the Caulfields. Or maybe not. Crumby phonies abound in both books.
Platform, Michel Houellebecq
Looking to lose his virginity, Caulfield dances with some tourists from Seattle and then has a mutually unfilfilling encounter with a prostitute named Sunny. Houellebecq’s Michel Renault sees wilder times.
Happy All The Time, Laurie Colwin
Res ipsa loquitur
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
tfw a thirty-something spinster in 1950s England is luckier in love than you are.
The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever
Clearly Cheever’s adolescence was happier than Salinger’s.
An American Life, Ronald Reagan
Who gave John Hinckley internet privileges?
This is part of an ongoing series of how we are using data to tease out connections between books. If you want us to try another book using this like/dislike methodology leave it in the comments.
Acknowledgement: Much gratitude to Matt Frost for patiently teaching me how to teach myself the statistical language R. If you are interested in the least in climate change go forth and read his article Coal Retirement Plan.
