Reading the Cordell, I was captivated by Ed Finn's project:
Using Amazon reviews and recommendations to trace popular reading tastes within
a contemporary context. I think this approach could be deepened and expanded to
trace literary influence as it pertains to popular taste across a range of
books/authors. In other words, I propose a project akin to Six Degrees of Separation.
If, for instance, I were to take Sylvia Plath’s Ariel and take the top
five poetry and/or fiction recommendations written by other authors (reader’s
also liked; related books; customer’s also purchased, etc.) what links could I
find between genres, authors, literary style, and/or literary eras. I would
also propose cross-checking these recommendations across several sites,
including Google Books, Amazon, GoodReads, and Powells, and others. This would
not only speak to differences in site algorithms but differences in taste among
site users. Would any common threads
emerge? Would any glaring oddities emerge? What explanations could be made for
these outliers and commonalities?
Furthermore, could we discover links between genres and
authors that are not typically explored in an academic and critical context,
and what might these overlooked links reveal about the works in question?
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