book.sv
AI
recommendation engine
SHOW HN2025
606points
259comments
#50of 3,837 in 2025
Top 2%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
32 positive, 41 neutral or asking, 19 mixed, 40 critical, out of 132 comments about the project. Thread score -0.04.
Idea: 15 for, 19 againstExecution: 6 for, 6 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 9 againstDesign: 3 for, 0 againstPerformance: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Recommendations are good from few inputs and match wishlists
From 3 comments
This is fantastic!!! I've added many results to my want-to-read list, they're very on-point from very few inputs. It would be really cool to import from a user ID, where you can…
sodality2 on HNThe recommendations are pretty good; even though I only input six books, it was enough for it to recommend books I have on my wish list. Definitely going to play around some…
jamesponddotco on HNNeat! It's a validation of the model that 75%+ of the recommendations are things I've read and also enjoyed, with a few "read, didn't like" and some more "didn't read, don't…
majormajor on HN
Site is fast
From 2 comments
Echoing what everyone else has said here - awesome site, love how fast it was. I did notice that when I put in a single book in a series (in my case Going Postal, Discworld #33)…
dbl000 on HNThe recommendations are pretty good; even though I only input six books, it was enough for it to recommend books I have on my wish list. Definitely going to play around some…
jamesponddotco on HN
Objections
Recommendations lean toward books the user already read, lacking discovery
From 3 comments
OK, I just added books until you told me I had too many. Fun idea! I have a couple of suggestions: * UI - once someone clicks "Add" you really should remove that item from the…
vessenes on HNI love this site, and the approach! Great seeing someone making good use of Goodreads data. Sadly my experience with the book recommender isn't too great because of the 64 book…
varenc on HNNeat! It's a validation of the model that 75%+ of the recommendations are things I've read and also enjoyed, with a few "read, didn't like" and some more "didn't read, don't…
majormajor on HN
Series books dominate recommendations
From 2 comments
Echoing what everyone else has said here - awesome site, love how fast it was. I did notice that when I put in a single book in a series (in my case Going Postal, Discworld #33)…
dbl000 on HNIt has a tendency to recommend books in the same series as are input (putting aside that if I like a book in a series I've likely already read the series). It did suggest…
noir_lord on HN
Goodreads import fails for some users
From 3 comments
I tried to import my book list with "Import goodreads" button and inputting https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/68515148-andrew but it said "import failed, see console"
androng on HNTwo bugs to know about. First, you are using a deprecated API call that fails in Firefox. Second, you are using an HTTP endpoint that fails to upgrade to HTTPS to call the…
tristor on HNImport doesn't work for me.
mhb on HN
Scraping Goodreads may violate its terms and robots.txt
From 2 comments
Does this break part 4 of the Goodreads TOS? "[...] you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform,…
voidUpdate on HNThe robots.txt is pretty explicit that this scraping is "disallowed" https://www.goodreads.com/robots.txt So legalities aside, this seems unethical.
diffeomorphism on HN
Requests
Filter out authors of input books
From 1 comment
You should filter out authors from the input books in the output. If liked a book by an author, surely I'd read more of their work if I wanted to — recommending them isn't…
blehn on HN
Add diversification and discovery of new areas
From 2 comments
OK, I just added books until you told me I had too many. Fun idea! I have a couple of suggestions: * UI - once someone clicks "Add" you really should remove that item from the…
vessenes on HNNeat! It's a validation of the model that 75%+ of the recommendations are things I've read and also enjoyed, with a few "read, didn't like" and some more "didn't read, don't…
majormajor on HN
Open source or API access
From 2 comments
The recommendations are pretty good; even though I only input six books, it was enough for it to recommend books I have on my wish list. Definitely going to play around some…
jamesponddotco on HNWill this be open source?
atomicnature on HN
Remove already-added books from suggestions
From 1 comment
OK, I just added books until you told me I had too many. Fun idea! I have a couple of suggestions: * UI - once someone clicks "Add" you really should remove that item from the…
vessenes on HN
Questions
Will the work be open source?
From 1 comment
Will this be open source?
atomicnature on HN
Was Goodreads data used with reviewer permission for LLM training?
From 2 comments
Does this break part 4 of the Goodreads TOS? "[...] you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform,…
voidUpdate on HNPlease remove my reviews from your LLM model and training data. Thank you.
boplicity on HN
Alternatives named
LibraryThing
From 1 comment
Thank you for the kind remarks. I would say your request is reasonable and it’s something I thought about but it’s worth noting that if you scroll down on a Goodreads book page…
costco on HN
StoryGraph
From 1 comment
Thank you for the kind remarks. I would say your request is reasonable and it’s something I thought about but it’s worth noting that if you scroll down on a Goodreads book page…
costco on HN