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Hi all, the creator here :) I am trying to create an online experience that is like wandering through your local bookstore. Along with little notes pointing ou

by bwb 6y ago

Hi all, the creator here :) I am trying to create an online experience that is like wandering through your local bookstore. Along with little notes pointing out great books by people who really know that topic. For the beta launch, I’ve got a little over 400 book recommendation lists by authors on specific subjects. These are all hand curated. Some of my favorites: The Best Books On The Power And Wonder of Mathematics https://shepherd.com/best-books/power-and-wonder-mathematics https://shepherd.com/best-books/power-and-wonder-mathematics The Best Books On The Meaning Of Life https://shepherd.com/best-books/meaning-of-life https://shepherd.com/best-books/meaning-of-life Tom is one of my favorite video essayists and worth a watch. The Best Books For Understanding Human Nature https://shepherd.com/best-books/understanding-human-nature https://shepherd.com/best-books/understanding-human-nature This is just the start and I have a lot of improvements coming. I will be adding related book lists so that you can keep following your curiosity from list to list. I know the homepage is a bit shitty. I will add actual topic support and topic pages this summer (and an improved card format coming soon for the listings on the bottom). I am hoping to get into NLP later this year to help me with topics around the books and book lists. Feel free to ask me anything! My email is ben@shepherd.com if you want to say hi or share some thoughts, Thanks, Ben

james-bcn 6y ago
How did you get all those authors to contribute?
- bwb 6y ago
  Cold emails :) And, a great pitch about how this is a win/win, they get to feature their book alongside the list forever (plus switch it out when they have a new book coming out). And, they get to share their voice and expertise.
  - busymom0 6y ago
    Would you mind sharing examples of your cold email to them which got them to open and reply to your email?
    - bwb 6y ago
      Yep happy too, can you email me at ben@shepherd.com? I should note I personally customize them based on the author's book and genre, so that adds a lot of magic to this. Especially if I have read their book and can talk about it.
afpx 6y ago
I might have missed it, but it doesn’t seem to have any books about Christianity. Lots of other religions, though. How can that be? Was it a conscious decision?
- bwb 6y ago
  It is just how topics timed out :), I did a big focus on Buddhism, meditation, and stoicism in the first couple of months. So they are over represented right now. I've redesigned how I do topics now so that they flow in more evenly, but there is a lag and that will take 3 to 4 months to start shaking out. There are these though if you are interested: https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-apologetics https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-apologetics https://shepherd.com/best-books/early-christianity https://shepherd.com/best-books/early-christianity https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-right https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-right https://shepherd.com/best-books/meeting-christianity-and-germanic-religions https://shepherd.com/best-books/meeting-christianity-and-ger... I am hoping authors notice me more now and that will help diversify what comes in without the cold outreach I do.
ncallaway 6y ago
I'm excited to see this. I've started to become really convinced lately that online shopping (for everything!) really needs a next leap forward. I'm sick of everything I can buy on the internet being presented as a grid of images with a title, description, and price, with a detail page if I click on it. The presentation of a physical stores is so varied! A small bookstore is so different from a large bookstore, which is so different from a toy-store, which is again so different from an auto-parts store. I think the online UX for shopping is in dire need of iteration at this point. There's a reason each of those physical stores are presented differently, and I feel like we've lost so much of that in online shopping. I'm really excited to see the ideas you come up with for ways to make buying books online different from buying shoes or auto-parts online. I hope you're able to find some of that magic that bookstores were able to create. Good luck!
publicola1990 6y ago
Fivebooks.com is similar in some aspects, their interviews with experts I find very enlightening. By now they do have lists on very wide variety of topics including eclectic ones. Eg: they have lists on books about Indonesia, about biographies of Charlemagne, about understanding Modern Greece, etc.
celestialcheese 6y ago
small bug or UX issue - most of the bookshop.org links on https://shepherd.com/best-books/scientists-who-write-science-fiction https://shepherd.com/best-books/scientists-who-write-science... lead to 404's.
- bwb 6y ago
  Thanks, about 15% of the links to bookshop.org goes to a 404 page as they don't stock used books and don't have all the books Amazon does. We are working with them to find a way to make our system smarter, as right now they block our server from even checking their site for a 404.

by bwb 6y ago

james-bcn 6y ago

How did you get all those authors to contribute?

bwb 6y ago
Cold emails :) And, a great pitch about how this is a win/win, they get to feature their book alongside the list forever (plus switch it out when they have a new book coming out). And, they get to share their voice and expertise.
- busymom0 6y ago
  Would you mind sharing examples of your cold email to them which got them to open and reply to your email?
  - bwb 6y ago
    Yep happy too, can you email me at ben@shepherd.com? I should note I personally customize them based on the author's book and genre, so that adds a lot of magic to this. Especially if I have read their book and can talk about it.

afpx 6y ago

I might have missed it, but it doesn’t seem to have any books about Christianity. Lots of other religions, though. How can that be? Was it a conscious decision?

bwb 6y ago
It is just how topics timed out :), I did a big focus on Buddhism, meditation, and stoicism in the first couple of months. So they are over represented right now. I've redesigned how I do topics now so that they flow in more evenly, but there is a lag and that will take 3 to 4 months to start shaking out. There are these though if you are interested: https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-apologetics https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-apologetics https://shepherd.com/best-books/early-christianity https://shepherd.com/best-books/early-christianity https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-right https://shepherd.com/best-books/christian-right https://shepherd.com/best-books/meeting-christianity-and-germanic-religions https://shepherd.com/best-books/meeting-christianity-and-ger... I am hoping authors notice me more now and that will help diversify what comes in without the cold outreach I do.

ncallaway 6y ago

I'm excited to see this. I've started to become really convinced lately that online shopping (for everything!) really needs a next leap forward. I'm sick of everything I can buy on the internet being presented as a grid of images with a title, description, and price, with a detail page if I click on it. The presentation of a physical stores is so varied! A small bookstore is so different from a large bookstore, which is so different from a toy-store, which is again so different from an auto-parts store. I think the online UX for shopping is in dire need of iteration at this point. There's a reason each of those physical stores are presented differently, and I feel like we've lost so much of that in online shopping. I'm really excited to see the ideas you come up with for ways to make buying books online different from buying shoes or auto-parts online. I hope you're able to find some of that magic that bookstores were able to create. Good luck!

publicola1990 6y ago

Fivebooks.com is similar in some aspects, their interviews with experts I find very enlightening. By now they do have lists on very wide variety of topics including eclectic ones. Eg: they have lists on books about Indonesia, about biographies of Charlemagne, about understanding Modern Greece, etc.

celestialcheese 6y ago

small bug or UX issue - most of the bookshop.org links on https://shepherd.com/best-books/scientists-who-write-science-fiction https://shepherd.com/best-books/scientists-who-write-science... lead to 404's.

bwb 6y ago
Thanks, about 15% of the links to bookshop.org goes to a 404 page as they don't stock used books and don't have all the books Amazon does. We are working with them to find a way to make our system smarter, as right now they block our server from even checking their site for a 404.