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Show HN: Nextread.ai – AI-powered book recommendations with a twist

10 points by ailibrarian 2y ago

iammrpayments 2y ago
Really nice, if the interface gets a little more polished, the site creator can make enough money with affiliate links
freetonik 2y ago
Seems like the site is down.
voidUpdate 2y ago
The first book I tried completely errored out the site, the second book I tried worked, but the AI stuff doesn't seem to do anything at all. Console show's its returning a 500 error page and failing to interpret that as JS
- Jaxan 2y ago
  Same issue here.
- csmattryder 2y ago
  I mean, you can just go and plug in the same prompt into ChatGPT and cut out the middleman, really. Just did it for a laugh, and for "High Rise" it recommended "The Road" and "The Dispossessed". Sounds about right.
Tepix 2y ago
I like the silly animations on the site! I entered the book "Five billion years of solitude" that i really like and clicked on "Unleash the book magic" but the recommendations it gave (under the headline "More Science / Space Science / Astronomy Adventures Await!") were not very good¹. Also, the "scoop" for the following book is garbled: https://nextread.ai/book/stellar-interiors-GI3qBwAAQBAJ https://nextread.ai/book/stellar-interiors-GI3qBwAAQBAJ ⎯⎯ ¹ for example https://nextread.ai/book/density-functional-theory-of-atoms-and-molecules-8XQ8DwAAQBAJ https://nextread.ai/book/density-functional-theory-of-atoms-... is a very different book than mine.
gostsamo 2y ago
Both books I tried errored.
- saltcod 2y ago
  Same
keithalewis 2y ago
Attention Everyone!!! We have just found our killer AI app!!! Just imagine, you no longer need to talk to friends, family, or waste time on social networks to get a list of books you are never going to read!!! I can't wait to start buying tulip bulbs for pennies on the dollar.
__rito__ 2y ago
Doesn't work for me. I tried with two books, "Cryptonomicon" by Stephenson, and "The Fellowship of the Ring" by JRR Tolkien. And, both times, I got- Error Sorry, something went wrong. But dont worry, you can find plenty of other things on our homepage. back to homepage
mulhoon 2y ago
Looks interesting. I found that the blog links are broken. Blogs really do themselves a disservice by using generated imagery. It make me assume the content is AI too and cheapens the whole service. Maybe this is just a placeholder for now.
- n4r9 2y ago
  I suspect that everything about the Blog section is AI-generated.
lynx23 2y ago
LLMs are surprisingly effective recommendation systems. Throw in a list of your favourite books, music labels, tv shows, movies, you name it. And it will reply with some useful suggestions on what to consume next. I had particularily good results with music labels and books. In fact, I have a .txt file with my favourite books now, if I ever need a recommendation...
beardyw 2y ago
Seems to have not heard of Thomas Hardy. Also quite buggy.
nusl 2y ago
Broken website that wants you to sign in if you want to do literally anything useful with it. It displayed results in other languages, too, so I couldn't understand what was displayed. Honestly, you could probably use ChatGPT directly for better results by asking it for suggestions or tweaking the prompt a bit.
obscurette 2y ago
I have a major problem with every recommendation system - all these remind me a recommendation system from Amazon which after purchasing a laptop recommended me more laptops. I'm not interested in more books similar to the ones I already read, music similar I already listened etc.
findthewords 2y ago
I love the front-end but the back-end doesn't work. I managed to get one Spotify playlist generated.
esskay 2y ago
The library is tiny, loads of popular titles just dont show up. Those that do it gives truely awful recommendations for. Example, "Big ideas for small businesses" by John Lamerton - specifically chosen as its a UK focused small business book in a relatively niche category. It recommended me a books called "Top 100 Companies in China", "Trade and Investment in China", "Lean UX", and one of the the Harry Potter books for some bizarre reason....these arent even remotely related types of book.

10 points by ailibrarian 2y ago

iammrpayments 2y ago

Really nice, if the interface gets a little more polished, the site creator can make enough money with affiliate links

freetonik 2y ago

Seems like the site is down.

voidUpdate 2y ago

The first book I tried completely errored out the site, the second book I tried worked, but the AI stuff doesn't seem to do anything at all. Console show's its returning a 500 error page and failing to interpret that as JS

Jaxan 2y ago
Same issue here.
csmattryder 2y ago
I mean, you can just go and plug in the same prompt into ChatGPT and cut out the middleman, really. Just did it for a laugh, and for "High Rise" it recommended "The Road" and "The Dispossessed". Sounds about right.

Tepix 2y ago

I like the silly animations on the site! I entered the book "Five billion years of solitude" that i really like and clicked on "Unleash the book magic" but the recommendations it gave (under the headline "More Science / Space Science / Astronomy Adventures Await!") were not very good¹. Also, the "scoop" for the following book is garbled: https://nextread.ai/book/stellar-interiors-GI3qBwAAQBAJ https://nextread.ai/book/stellar-interiors-GI3qBwAAQBAJ ⎯⎯ ¹ for example https://nextread.ai/book/density-functional-theory-of-atoms-and-molecules-8XQ8DwAAQBAJ https://nextread.ai/book/density-functional-theory-of-atoms-... is a very different book than mine.

gostsamo 2y ago

Both books I tried errored.

saltcod 2y ago
Same

keithalewis 2y ago

Attention Everyone!!! We have just found our killer AI app!!! Just imagine, you no longer need to talk to friends, family, or waste time on social networks to get a list of books you are never going to read!!! I can't wait to start buying tulip bulbs for pennies on the dollar.

__rito__ 2y ago

Doesn't work for me. I tried with two books, "Cryptonomicon" by Stephenson, and "The Fellowship of the Ring" by JRR Tolkien. And, both times, I got- Error Sorry, something went wrong. But dont worry, you can find plenty of other things on our homepage. back to homepage

mulhoon 2y ago

Looks interesting. I found that the blog links are broken. Blogs really do themselves a disservice by using generated imagery. It make me assume the content is AI too and cheapens the whole service. Maybe this is just a placeholder for now.

n4r9 2y ago
I suspect that everything about the Blog section is AI-generated.

lynx23 2y ago

LLMs are surprisingly effective recommendation systems. Throw in a list of your favourite books, music labels, tv shows, movies, you name it. And it will reply with some useful suggestions on what to consume next. I had particularily good results with music labels and books. In fact, I have a .txt file with my favourite books now, if I ever need a recommendation...

beardyw 2y ago

Seems to have not heard of Thomas Hardy. Also quite buggy.

nusl 2y ago

Broken website that wants you to sign in if you want to do literally anything useful with it. It displayed results in other languages, too, so I couldn't understand what was displayed. Honestly, you could probably use ChatGPT directly for better results by asking it for suggestions or tweaking the prompt a bit.

obscurette 2y ago

I have a major problem with every recommendation system - all these remind me a recommendation system from Amazon which after purchasing a laptop recommended me more laptops. I'm not interested in more books similar to the ones I already read, music similar I already listened etc.

findthewords 2y ago

I love the front-end but the back-end doesn't work. I managed to get one Spotify playlist generated.

esskay 2y ago

The library is tiny, loads of popular titles just dont show up. Those that do it gives truely awful recommendations for. Example, "Big ideas for small businesses" by John Lamerton - specifically chosen as its a UK focused small business book in a relatively niche category. It recommended me a books called "Top 100 Companies in China", "Trade and Investment in China", "Lean UX", and one of the the Harry Potter books for some bizarre reason....these arent even remotely related types of book.