I have a huge reading list that's gotten longer than my lifetime will allow for since I started working for The Writer. But if I didn't know what to read next, I would have fun using a Web site I stumbled across recently. Designed by two British gentlemen, Andrew Chapman and Paul Lenz, the Web site www.whatshouldireadnext.com allows you to enter a title or an author you've enjoyed to search for book recommendations from other people who have enjoyed the same books. So far, the database has 47,000 books. You don't have to register and enter a book list to use the Web site.

I entered Stephen King's Cujo and received recommendations for books by H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Howard Stern (?) and, of course, other books by Stephen King. When I entered The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, I received suggestions for books by Jules Verne, Stephen Crane, H.G. Wells and Daniel Defoe, among others. I thought those seemed to be likely suggestions (with the exception of Howard Stern) for someone who liked those two books. Despite the size of my reading list, I'll probably use this Web site to look for some recommendations.

And for the price of that one Web site (free), I found there are a couple other similar Web sites built by the same guys. One is a beta site to search for CD and DVD suggestions (you can search for books there, too) called www.thisonenext.com/search. The DVD recommendations were on target, but I'm not sure about the CD suggestions: I threw in Celine Dion for fun and one of the recommendations it churned out was Marilyn Manson. I can't think of two musicians more diametrically opposed; it must demonstrate that the CD lists are built by people with very eclectic music tastes.

But it was the other Web site that really caught my eye, and it's particularly apropos for this election season: www.whoshouldivotefor.com.
Now, I realize that most people already know which candidate they're going to vote for, and I'm not vouching for the accuracy of the Web site's database calculations, but hey, why not give it a try to see what it churns out? I guarantee it will be one of two recommendations.

--Martha Lundin, editorial associate

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