I was playing with Bard last night and gave it a list of books I’ve read and enjoyed recently, and asked it to recommend other books I might enjoy.

Here’s my prompt

The following are the title and author of books that I read and enjoyed recently. Can you recommend other books I might enjoy?

  • Project Hail Mary, Weir
  • Fall, Stephenson
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman
  • A Memory Called Empire, Martine
  • A Desolation Called Peace, Martine
  • Murderbot Diaries books, Wells
  • The Kingston Cycle trilogy, Polk
  • Ancillary Justice, Leckie
  • Ancillary Sword, Leckie
  • Ancillary Mercy, Leckie
  • Gideon the Ninth, Muir
  • All Clear, Willis
  • Blind Lake, Wilson
  • Nettle and Bone, Kingfisher
  • The Graveyard Book, Gaiman
  • Saturn’s Children, Stross
  • The Anomaly, Le Tellier
  • The Daughter of Dr. Moreau, Moreno-Garcia

Bard response

Based on your reading history, I can recommend several books you might enjoy:

Science Fiction:

  • The Martian by Andy Weir: If you enjoyed Project Hail Mary, you’ll likely appreciate Weir’s other work. The Martian is a gripping story of an astronaut stranded on Mars and his fight for survival.
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson: Like Fall, Seveneves explores a near-future disaster scenario where the moon is destroyed and its fragments threaten to destroy Earth.
  • The Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor: This humorous series follows the adventures of Bob Johansson, whose brain is uploaded into a computer and who then travels the galaxy aboard a self-aware spaceship.
  • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu: This award-winning Chinese science fiction novel tells the story of first contact between humanity and an alien civilization.
  • The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells: If you enjoyed the Murderbot Diaries, you may also like Wells’ Raksura series, which features shapeshifting creatures and political intrigue.

Fantasy:

  • The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: Like The Ocean at the End of the Lane, this book features a magical setting and a cast of memorable characters.
  • The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin: This award-winning trilogy explores themes of race, gender, and power in a post-apocalyptic world.
  • The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater: This YA series follows a group of teenagers who discover they have magical powers.
  • The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss: This epic fantasy series tells the story of Kvothe, a legendary musician and adventurer.

Other:

  • The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson: This timely novel explores the challenges of climate change and offers solutions for a more sustainable future.
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: This magical realist novel follows the story of a young couple who are forced to flee their war-torn country.
  • Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: This experimental novel tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s grief over the death of his son.
  • The Overstory by Richard Powers: This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel explores the interconnectedness of all living things.

In addition to these specific recommendations, I can also suggest some general tips for finding books you might enjoy:

  • Read reviews and recommendations: Look for books that have been praised by critics and readers with similar taste to yours.
  • Explore different genres: Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and try something new.
  • Ask for help: Librarians and booksellers can be a great resource for finding new books to read.
  • Join a book club: This is a great way to discuss books with other readers and get recommendations for new titles.

I hope this helps!

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    5·
    11 months ago

    Post was already long, so didn’t want to editorialize there, but worth mentioning that I’d read The Martian and Seveneves earlier and really liked both of them. I read The Three Body Problem a week or two ago and didn’t love it, but I can get why it was on the list; it’s the sort of thing I might like, but parts of it just seemed too unrealistic to me.

    Most of the others I hadn’t heard of, so maybe I’ll give them a try.

    • samus7070@programming.dev
      5·
      11 months ago

      Keep in mind these things don’t really know anything. They’re good at saying things that seem to fit the situation because that’s how they’re trained. They are like that person you may know that thinks he knows everything and will just say stuff that sounds right to them. The only difference is the ai is a lot more practiced than the human. Google’s llm may have some filtering done on the output to at least make sure that all of the books it recommends are real though it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a fake one in the list somewhere. These things are prone to “hallucinations” which some lawyers found out the hard way.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Oh, I’m well aware of what they are and what they’re not. My guess is that at least a large part of these recommendations comes from the myriad discussions about these books that the LLM was trained on.

        I’m a software engineering manager and I’ve let my folks know that they should not ever use code that was generated by one - it can look pretty good but it’s harder to catch a bug in code that you didn’t right and looks reasonable.

        But there’s not much risk in using one for something like book recommendations.