I think some search/browse filters could be incredibly useful too. For example, I'd be interested in a split between recommendations by founders running on VC money versus those growing a more organic business, such as Basecamp perhaps. Or maybe those working on open source products, like Gitlab, compared to closed source cloud based offerings.
I imagine that there could be interesting things to learn through comparing the books recommended through such filtering.
Technically I'm using Algolia to sort/filter these so doing something like this should be easy. Something like a hidden attribute that when searched for sorts the list, for example by searching for a term like "bootstrapped" or "remote" you'd get books or founders tagged with these attributes.
Agreed. I feel it would also help to know why they recommended it. One sentence, no more than two. Sum it up, Twitter stylee.
That said, allow for down-votes would also help to add value. More or less, "read it, wouldn't recommend it." As it is, 5 recommends looks solid, but what if there were 10 don't recommend?
Re downvotes: the problem with that is sometimes book recommendations can be very personal or context-dependent. Sure 10 might not recommend, but what if the recommendations come from people whose background / experience / goals better align with yours? I included profiles for each founder under every book for exactly that reason — so you can learn more about them and about what might have driven these recommendations.
Yes. But what if the same can be said for those who don't recommend? I read a lot. Most of the time it's time well spent. But I don't recommend everything I read either.
I imagine that there could be interesting things to learn through comparing the books recommended through such filtering.