Writers on the map

Click on the image to enlarge

    Have you ever consulted the The Literature Map to get a pointer towards your next read? The idea is that you type in the name of an author you like and up will come a 'constellation' of other similar writers, their proximity to your chosen name indicating degree of common ground, or to be more exact, the frequency with which readers of one are also readers of another.

    I've been playing with the map function, for example, especially for my friend Lindsay I typed in 'Dorothy Whipple', that "Jane Austen of the twentieth century" (J.B. Priestley) whose books are loved by so many of us (but scorned by Lindsay!!). Jane Austen does indeed appear on Mrs. Whipple's map, but interestingly, closest to her is Alexander McCall Smith, equally loved by Cornflower Books's readers (including Lindsay himself) and countless others.

    You can also search by typing in the names of three favourite authors and get one recommendation based on them: to test that I put in AMcCS, Ann Patchett and Hilary Mantel, and up came Margaret Forster - indeed I do like her books too. Then click for her map and you'll find her in the vicinity of good people like Penelope Lively, Tracey Chevalier, Robertson Davies, Susan Hill, Rose Tremain, Penelope Fitzgerald, and so on. You'd be on the right track if you followed those trails.

    Having been swept away by John Saturnall's Feast recently (I enthuse here), I put Lawrence Norfolk's name into the search box, and up came the likes of A.S. Byatt and John Fowles, Dorothy Dunnett (quite the renaissance lady - there's a link to an interview with her in this post), Susanna Clarke, George Eliot and Donna Tartt. Meanwhile, Dorothy L. Sayers produced the constellation you see above, many names familiar from the Oxford crime post.

    It may not be foolproof but it's fun!