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John Piper: The Anti-Rowling
- 11/24/06
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While I was slurping down lunch today I spent a few minutes playing with LibraryThing's "Unsuggestion" feature. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, LibraryThing is a neat little site that allows you to catalog your books. Or as the site says, "LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere--even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth." I began using the service in September of last year and since then have cataloged all of my new books through it (I have yet to add a lot of older books that don't have ISBN numbers handy). You can see my list here.
One of LibraryThing's fun features is "LibrarySuggester." Using this tool, you can input the name of a book and the program will search through other people's libraries and determine what other similar books you may enjoy. For example, inputting Sprouls's Chosen by God reveals that 148 LibraryThing users have that book in their library. It then provides these suggestions based on other books in those same libraries: The holiness of God by Sproul, Bondage of the Will by Luther, Evangelism and the sovereignty of God by Packer, Desiring God by Piper, and so on. While not a flawless system, it does tend to provide solid suggestions.
A related feature is the "Unsuggester" which "takes 'people who like this also like that' and turns it on its head. It analyzes the seven million books LibraryThing members have recorded as owned or read, and comes back with books least likely to share a library with the book you suggest." Now the most popular books in LibraryThing are by J.K. Rowling. In fact, the six most-owned books are all from the Harry Potter series. I thought it would be interesting to run her books through the Unsuggester to see who the program would come up with. I was not at all surprised to see that the Anti-Rowling is none other than John Piper. The top two unsuggestions (and three of the top seven) all belong to Piper. The Dangerous Duty of Delight ranks first with Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ coming second and The Justification of God falling seventh. So if you own books by Rowling, chances are that you do not own books by Piper.
I laughed to see that the top two unsuggestions for Bill Clinton's My Life are none other than Calvin's Institutes and Piper's Don't Waste Your Life (which, I suppose, means that Christian hedonism does not inspire people to admire those who adhere to the real thing).
Anyways, just something that amused me while I ate my lunch. Please return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Published in 2008, this book
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This review of the bestselling
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Comments (29)
Tim:
Thanks for the info on LibraryThing. I'll be checking that out pronto.
Checking my shelves reveals that I own seven Piper books and six Rowling books. Not sure what that means.
Greg
Interesting. 3 Rowling/5 Piper...
Wonder who the Anti-Wright is.
- Craig
We have the Institutes and Rowling, we also have some of the other books that others didn't, like Douglas Adams. I guess my taste in books is much more eclectic than others owning the Institutes :-)
I thought the combination of books on the side bar was funny especially if you liked "Road to Serfdom," you won't like "The Devil Wears Prada."
Well, we own both Piper and Rowlings too. It will be interesting to see how many commentators here are the same, given the first few comments.
I've been thinking about the Library Thing but the thought of going through all the shelves is a little daunting. I suppose if we start now it's better than in a few years.
Juanita - If you buy one of those bar code scanners you can save yourself lots of time...
Just for the record, I own sixteen books authored by Piper and 0 by Rowling. So I'm sure I'm helping with that unsuggestion.
Yet another owner of both Rowling books and Piper books here.
I find it very strange visiting your website, Tim. My last name is one letter different than yours!
"My last name is one letter different than yours!"
Challiex? Chalfies? Zhallies? Inquiring minds want to know!
My count currently stands at 6 - 3 to Rowling. And if it was down to percentages of books the two have written, it would look far worse for Piper!
So far, the unsuggestion thing doesn't seem to be accurate, with all these Piper/Rowling book owners. How can you all read so much worthless fantasy? (smiling here).
I personally have two Piper, zero Rowling.
hmmm, i have almost all piper books (the ones he wrote by himself) and do have all rowling books. but i'm young (22) so kinda got into the harry potter series. they're amazing.
i would suggest them by far, especially for anyone who actually watches television. i'm gonna say it and know that its dangerous: reading rowling is in my opinion far better in many ways that watching the tube.
I am really enjoying LibraryThing, too! This unsuggestor is quite interesting.
I don't own books by either author.
LibraryThing is kind of cool. The print feature seems to be the most practical feature. I don't know why I would just want an online catalog of the books I own since I can see them on my shelves every time I walk across the room.
We have Piper and Rowling... (my wife LOVES Harry P.)
I was going to post that people who read Rowling probably don't read Challies. Egg on my face. It looks like if you read Piper, you also read Rowling and Challies.
No Rowling for me, just Piper.
24-0 in Piper's favour. Guess I'm an extremist :)
Interesting to learn of Librarything.
I am a children's librarian for a large public library system, so naturally our home collection is arranged by the dewey system. We have many volumes on reformed theology (Piper included) as well as the Harry Potter series.
It seems more likely that the Anti-Piper would be Tim LaHaye! It does semm odd though to be comparing a non-fiction author to a fiction author.
Haha, I agree with Charlene.
I love my Harry Potter books, but the Piper ones are of a different and greater importance in my library!
Library thing is GREAT! A friend gifted me with a lifetime membership, and I have been enjoying it ever since.
I checked out your page, and discovered that we share two books. Not too shabby, since I only have ten books listed (I add them as I read them).
Rowling 6 ~ Piper 12
Ditto to Charlene's comments.
Tim,
Does the Library Thizzle connect to any sort of scanner/automated entry devices? I would love to use something like this but sitting down and entering all that data for my stacks just ain't gonna happen any time soon.
Thanks
Reid
Piper 10 Rowling 0. Several friends enjoy the Rowling series, they haven't converted me yet.
I'm not sure that too much should be made of the number of commenters on this thread that have Rowling and Piper books, this being a self-selected group commenting and what not.
While I only have one Piper book, the thought of buying a Rowling book has never even entered my mind. Any spare book money will probably end up going to Banner of Truth, Soli Deo Gloria, Desiring God, Crossway, or some such publisher.
My wishlist is now long enough that I may only be getting books for Christmas. Now, if I only had time to read all those books ...
Russ
12-0 in Piper's favor... but that's because we got the H.P. books from the library. Yes, Tim, some people read books they don't own. ;)
I don't have my bookshelf handy, but my estimate is Piper - 4, Rowling - 0.
Thanks for the tip to LibraryThing. It looks fascinating, and I may have to give it a go!
6 Piper to 6 Rowling. Quick! I need 6 of another author to send LaHaye into a frenzy!
Well, there goes the rest of my free time. A fascinating and worthwhile site. Thanks for the tip.
""My last name is one letter different than yours!"
Challiex? Chalfies? Zhallies? Inquiring minds want to know!"
Subtract the E!
732. You have 732 books on this site, and that is just your new books? How can you move in your office?
Very cool tip! I have a couple of Piper books and all of the Harry Potter series. My conscience is eased after seeing I'm not the only one who enjoys a vist to Hogwarts now and again.
If I remember correctly, Amazon tried something similar, but the early stages were a bit lacking. I remember getting several reccomendations based on similar author names.
"I see you just ordered a book by John Piper. Then you'll love the latest offering by John Grisham, and it appears John Leguizamo's autobiography is out. You'll definitely want to check out that one!"