Literature Map -- Visual Look for Like Books

Heard on the California School Library Association listserv: One way to find suggestions for books similar to the one you just read is by going to Literature Map: the tourist map of literature and typing in an author's name. What you get is a bunch of other authors scattered around on the page, with the most similar ones closest to the center. This works well with some, but not all authors. Still, it is kind of fun and a different way to look at authors -- show your friends, students. See if your favorite author is "on the map".

The new issue of Booklist was sitting next to my netbook, so I experimented with a few authors including Alexander Smith (Yippee! He has another book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series).

When I entered a new or lesser-known author such as Kathy Carmichael, author of "Diary of a Confessions Queen" (a Booklist starred review), the following message appears:

Kathy Carmichael has not found a place on the map yet.

Do you like Kathy Carmichael? If so, please click here and tell Gnod what else you like. So we can put Kathy Carmichael on the map as fast as possible.