If you haven’t already played with LibraryThing’s unSuggester, go play now. John Emerson has some notable book/antibook pairs which are worth a look.

I was tooling around with the ordinary recommendations and was dismayed to discover that since last time I checked my sf predeliction has apparently overwhelmed the stats completely. To my puzzlement but delight, one of the exceptions (down at number 42) was Waiting for Godot, which I’ve recently added to my to-read list (Newsflash! LibraryThing achieves sentience, reads subscribers minds! Demands personal copy-editor!). Even more bemusing are the reasons (LT gives you a ‘Why?’ link which pulls out the most significant weighting factors in the recommendation): because I own The Third Policeman, Species of spaces and other pieces, and The Penguin history of New Zealand. (I don’t own the second one, it’s a wishlist entry. Hint hint.) What’s going on here? People who read about New Zealand history also like Beckett? Boggles the mind…

Update: My officemate Michael has cracked it. It’s self-referential, you see: there is no connection between the three, there is no reason they support Waiting for Godot. LT has indeed gone sentient, and it’s got a sense of humour as well.