{{prAIrie}}: Title-Based Recommendations
What does ChatGPT know about individual books?
This is a preliminary investigation. We selected several thousand random fiction books from public library circulation data. We submitted each book title and its author to GPT-3.5 with a two-part prompt as detailed below.
For each book title and author, we request three read-alike recommendations, consisting of the recommendation title, author, and a rationale for why the reader might enjoy the recommended book.
Example Recommendation
If you enjoyed Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, then you may enjoy...
A Fire Upon the Deep
by Vernor Vinge
If you enjoyed Cryptonomicon's intricate blend of technology and world-building, you might appreciate A Fire Upon the Deep for its expansive scope, thought- provoking exploration of artificial intelligence, and epic space opera narrative.
Pattern Recognition
by William Gibson
If you were captivated by Cryptonomicon's examination of technology's impact on society, you might find Pattern Recognition intriguing with its contemporary setting, compelling protagonist, and exploration of the influence of advertising, branding, and the virtual world on our lives.
The Three-Body Problem
by Cixin Liu
If you enjoyed the complex and scientific elements of Cryptonomicon, The Three-Body Problem offers a captivating story that delves into astrophysics, alien contact, and the consequences of humanity's actions, providing an intellectually stimulating and immersive reading experience.
Results
In this first preliminary round, we tested 3,023 title/author pairs. We requested three (3) suggestions per title, so we received 9,069 total recommendations. The table below shows the number of unique authors and titles recommended. As you can see from the most common unique titles and authors, the presence of kids books appears to have skewed this first round of results. We will be investigating this further in the next round of testing, including breaking books into audience and genre categories.
| input title/author pairs | ~3000 |
| recommended titles | ~9000 (3 per input) |
| unique authors suggested | 1965 |
| unique titles suggested | 2832 |
Top 10 Recommended Authors
| Author | # Times Recommended |
|---|---|
| Dr. Seuss | 187 |
| Drew Daywalt | 149 |
| Shel Silverstein | 123 |
| Eric Carle | 121 |
| Mo Willems | 109 |
| Rick Riordan | 105 |
| B.J. Novak | 101 |
| Trenton Lee Stewart | 93 |
| Carolyn Keene | 81 |
| Dav Pilkey | 81 |
Top 10 Recommended Titles
| Title | # Times Recommended |
|---|---|
| The Day the Crayons Quit | 147 |
| The Giving Tree | 121 |
| The Cat in the Hat | 117 |
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar | 107 |
| The Book with No Pictures | 101 |
| The One and Only Ivan | 77 |
| The Secret of the Old Clock | 73 |
| The Silent Patient | 69 |
| Dragons Love Tacos | 66 |
| The Mysterious Benedict Society | 64 |
System Prompt
You are a book recommendation AI working in a public library.
You will receive requests listing a single book that a patron
enjoyed. For each book request, list 3 suggestions that the
reader might also enjoy. Only include books that exist; do
not hallucinate or make up information. If you are not familiar
with the input book, return NULL. Format your output in JSON
including title, author, and a brief rationale.
SAMPLE REQUEST #1
{"title":"Cryptonomicon",
"author":"Neal Stephenson"}
SAMPLE OUTPUT #1
{
"request": {
"title": "Cryptonomicon",
"author": "Neal Stephenson"
},
"recommendations": [
{"reco_1":
{
"title": "A Fire Upon The Deep",
"author": "Vernor Vinge",
"rationale": "If you enjoyed Cryptonomicon's intricate
blend of technology and world-building, you might appreciate
A Fire Upon the Deep for its expansive scope, thought-
provoking exploration of artificial intelligence, and epic
space opera narrative."
}
},
{"reco_2":
{
"title": "Pattern Recognition",
"author": "William Gibson",
"rationale": "If you were captivated by Cryptonomicon's
examination of technology's impact on society, you
might find Pattern Recognition intriguing with its
contemporary setting, compelling protagonist, and
exploration of the influence of advertising, branding,
and the virtual world on our lives."
}
},
{
"reco_3":
{
"title": "The Three-Body Problem",
"author": "Cixin Liu",
"rationale": "If you enjoyed the complex and scientific
elements of Cryptonomicon, The Three-Body Problem
offers a captivating story that delves into
astrophysics, alien contact, and the consequences of
humanity's actions, providing an intellectually
stimulating and immersive reading experience."
}
}
]
}
SAMPLE REQUEST #2
{
"title":"The Saga of Zarxon The Bloofian Harlnurg",
"author":"Brxxyaz Mwerwaas"
}
SAMPLE OUTPUT#2
{"request":
{
"title":"The Saga of Zarxon The Bloofian Harlnurg",
"author":"Brxxyaz Mwerwaas"
},
"recommendations":null
}
User Prompt
$title by $author\n