Goodreads-trained book recommendation model
The most recommended of 4 book discovery sites
Quickly suggests books from just a few titles you enter, with no signup needed. Common caveat: it often repeats same-author or same-series books and handles niche picks poorly.
Quickly suggests books from just a few titles you enter, with no signup needed. Common caveat: it often repeats same-author or same-series books and handles niche picks poorly.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 69%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Accurate from few input books
“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.”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “Wow, quite impressive actually, some of those additional entries are quite good as well”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “It didn't take many books for it to start suggesting other books that I liked”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” - Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
- Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
- Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
- Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
Fast, no signup needed
“refreshing to have something that's instantly useful, with no need to signup/login”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “I think this is cool and super fast”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “awesome site, love how fast it was”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” Finds hidden gems and titles
“The intersect function especially will help me find hidden gems that other likeminded people have found.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “I have found interesting accounts of medievalists, people who work at think tanks, etc with it.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” Praised as cool and useful
“Works pretty well with cookbooks. Very cool work.”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “Loved this. Hope you get to tune it a little.”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “well done with this it’s really cool”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” - Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
- Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Mostly repeats same authors or series
“almost all the books are others by him, which is fine but doesn't really mix up the stuff I'm reading”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “Bummer getting recommendations for another book in the same series as one I already liked and read.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “I seem to mostly get a list of other books from the same authors.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” - Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
Suggests books you already read
“it gave me recommendations for a lot of books that I've already also read and enjoyed”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “It seems to mostly show me books I've already read and know of”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” Weak on niche and subgenres
“it definitely recommends good books, but not sure how accurate it is at surfacing the sub genres / themes”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “works decently even with just one or two titles for popular titles, but less so for the niche”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” 64-book input limit, import problems
“Sadly my experience with the book recommender isn't too great because of the 64 book limit”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model” “since I can't import my GoodReads successfully, it's hard for me to try”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: I scraped 3B Goodreads reviews to train a better recommendation model”
Other book discovery sites people recommend
The three most recommended other book discovery sites, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads-trained book recommendation modelThis page | 25 | 11 | 69% | 1 | — | — |
| Google Books | 22 | 19 | 54% | 10 | — | — |
| HackerBooks by DOSAYGO-STUDIO | 22 | 9 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
| Shepherd book recommendations | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
36 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“theres no way in hell that its a good general book recommendation engine for the participants.”
“what I was getting was "female scifi authors". Exclusively female.”
“took me three tries to find how to get from”
“found the recommended useful!”
“Bummer getting recommendations for another book in the same series as one I already liked and read.”
“I feel like wasted my time yet with another smart recommendation system.”
“its output was not really overwhelming”
“I have found interesting accounts of medievalists, people who work at think tanks, etc with it.”
“for each I got 1984 - George Orwell recommendation”
“It seems to mostly show me books I've already read and know of”
“well done with this it’s really cool”
“The intersect function especially will help me find hidden gems that other likeminded people have found.”
“refreshing to have something that's instantly useful, with no need to signup/login”
“Wow, quite impressive actually, some of those additional entries are quite good as well”
“Working great but it would be cool”
“I think this is cool and super fast”
“the 'start typing a book title...' field doesn't do anything”
“I seem to mostly get a list of other books from the same authors.”
“the results are sort of nothing special and that's not what I'd personally hope for”
“works decently even with just one or two titles for popular titles, but less so for the niche”
“since I can't import my GoodReads successfully, it's hard for me to try”
“Wow, that greatly improved the recommendations”
“most of the recommendation list was ALL the other books in the series”
“they're very on-point from very few inputs”
“Loved this. Hope you get to tune it a little.”
“awesome site, love how fast it was”
“I received books about Steve Jobs, Harry Potter and”
“almost all the books are others by him, which is fine but doesn't really mix up the stuff I'm reading”
“I'm impressed it recommended so many books i've already read and liked”
“Sadly my experience with the book recommender isn't too great because of the 64 book limit”
“it gave me recommendations for a lot of books that I've already also read and enjoyed”
“I'd already read 95% of them, so at least we know it works well!”
“it definitely recommends good books, but not sure how accurate it is at surfacing the sub genres / themes”
“Works pretty well with cookbooks. Very cool work.”
“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.”
“It didn't take many books for it to start suggesting other books that I liked”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.