I like what you're doing with Shepherd.com. I think the idea of curated reading lists is a good one and I've often contemplated it.
The most important thing I was given at University were reading lists. I often wondered if getting students from courses all over the world to send in copies of their University course reading lists would be possible/useful. To give a concrete example my Eng lit course in the 90s, each year we would get 6 reading lists covering different topics/historical periods and with a thematic direction: like (made up) Social Mobility in Renaissance Literature. These lists are produced by people with significant expertise and strong opinions, but also had to ensure certain ground was covered. It seems trivial in a sense, but actually when you come fresh to a topic it's hard to get a great list!
Anyway I think what you're doing is excellent. A question and an observation:
- I like the author led lists and I get why the page is strongly focused on who the recommendation is coming from / why I should care...but there was also a part of me that wanted quickly to see the general tenor of the recommendations. Not sure how one could possibly satisfy both desires above the fold! But anyway it was a "feeling".
I don't want to get yelled at... but in my testing OpenLibrary data was some of the worst out of all the datasets/APIs I tested. I would love to see that project succeed. I am not sure how they are going to achieve what they are trying to do within the current labor/"business" model.
I hear you on the general tenor of the recommendations, if you have a second shoot me an email at ben@shepehrd.com as I'd love to get your thoughts on something.
The most important thing I was given at University were reading lists. I often wondered if getting students from courses all over the world to send in copies of their University course reading lists would be possible/useful. To give a concrete example my Eng lit course in the 90s, each year we would get 6 reading lists covering different topics/historical periods and with a thematic direction: like (made up) Social Mobility in Renaissance Literature. These lists are produced by people with significant expertise and strong opinions, but also had to ensure certain ground was covered. It seems trivial in a sense, but actually when you come fresh to a topic it's hard to get a great list!
Anyway I think what you're doing is excellent. A question and an observation:
- Why not use openlibrary as referenced in the top comment here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26837057)?
- I like the author led lists and I get why the page is strongly focused on who the recommendation is coming from / why I should care...but there was also a part of me that wanted quickly to see the general tenor of the recommendations. Not sure how one could possibly satisfy both desires above the fold! But anyway it was a "feeling".