SSR: Pattern recognition on Amazon (Not thee Amazon)

We've all seen on Amazon, after clicking an item, near the bottom of the page are suggestions for something else Amazon thinks you may be interested in purchasing. The little recommendation area generally consists of other things people have bought in relation to the item you're looking at. An example might be if you were looking at a table, what would probably appear in the recommendations are matching chairs. Not just because they were made to go along with that table, but because that's what most people who bought the table also bought with it. Hence this magical little recommendation area being named the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" Section.

Now stop, because if right now you're thinking: "What is this person talking about?! I've never been to the Amazon, but I'm pretty sure there's nowhere to shop around there!" Then you are currently thinking of the Amazon River, and not the online website on which people shop. I realize this little bit was probably unnecessary, but it's my way of recognizing that not everyone has, does, or will use Amazon. So...yeah.

But enough of tables, and tourists, because we're really here to discuss the recommendation system for books. Aha! I got you! You probably didn't think I was going to get to that! But I did. Unfortunately for examples I'm going to have to mention mainstream books (Or current bestsellers). Believe me it's not that I want to, but I feel that I won't be able to get the point across if I choose books not everyone has read. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

The main system of book recommendations on Amazon is pretty much the system mentioned above of, whatever item your looking at, it'll show you what other people who bought that book have also bought. Usually other books by that author, other books in the series if it's a part of one, similar books, similar themes, just similar in general, books of or around the same genre, and if the book is mainstream, then other mainstream books a lot of people bought. You see where I'm going? For example, the first five recommendations for The Hunger Games include: Catching fire (Twice), Mockingjay (Twice), and Divergent. If you keep scrolling through the rest of the recommendations you'll see a few other well known books, a few classics, The Hunger Games movies, and merchandise. Now do you get why I had to use a mainstream book? Odds are if I used a not well know book, a lot of people out there wouldn't be able to see the connections a lot of the recommendations had to the book of subject.

My response is that it's a pretty good system. If I'm looking at a book series I like, it either gives me a good idea of something else I might like, or give me a quick link to another book in the series. But, like most "bullet proof" systems, it's not absolute. Sometimes items recommended seem to be completely unrelated and as random as finding a shopping mall by the Amazon river. Sometimes it's only slightly related, and sometimes you don't know where it came from. While looking at The Hunger Games recommendations, one of the first five items was a stack of note books with one of the generic Amazon pictures used, though the next time I looked at the same link it wasn't there anymore. A different time I was looking at a bored game for kids and one of the first items was...well? An adult item. My first reaction was somewhere between laughing and exasperation as to why that would be there in the first place.

I don't know if those, just happened to be what most people bought along with what I was looking at, or if it's just a minor site glitch, but you get the point, not everything in the recommendations is useful, or necessarily what you're looking for. Odds are most people don't even glance at the recommendations bar, let alone look through more than the first five. I usually don't, but now you know. As with most things, it has it's up's and it's down's.

Here's a link to go to Amazon. But not thee Amazon.

~Let the mayhem begin.

Book reveiw for Howl's Moving Castle

Imagine wizards, witches, talking fires, and magic castles. That's exactly what you'll get in this novel, but probably not in the way most people would expect. The story to say the least is "enchanting" No pun intended. It's a good book to read on a sunny day, you'll find yourself wrapped up in the quest but not overly so. The actions and reactions of most throughout the book are plausible and realistic, unlike a lot of heroic books you might read today. You'll be surprised at what a homey story that takes place given the circumstances of the conflict. Personally, the end is a little anticlimactic, though given the pace of the book, it's a fitting end.

Published in 1986 Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones, is a fictional fantasy book that takes place in a strange second dimension. Follow Sophie, in her struggles to break a curse set upon her by the Wicked Witch of the Waste. Seeking help from the great wizard Howl, dealing with his antics and strange ways soon becomes more of a hindrance than the awful curse itself. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good novel. I give Howl's Moving Castle three out of five Bookmarks.

Link for Amazon

~Let the mayhem begin.

Just a poem

Once I bought a book.
I had got it from a crook.
I took a good look...

Then the cops showed up,
Arrested when I said 'sup?
Need bail. Need Backup.

The book was stolen,
And now I can't go bowlin'
'cuz my eye's swollen

I realize this doesn't make that much sense, but I'm not a Poet. I know that. See I didn't even go for the obvious rhyme. Nope. It's just not in me. Yeah...

Humor Blog

The assignment I've been dealt this week is a humor blog. Basically, since this blog is about book reviews I have to go over types of humor in books, crack a few jokes, and be overall silly. 'Shouldn't be too hard...I hope. Now most people have read the standard book that somewhere through the story something funny happened. Maybe, someone fell over or into something, maybe they said something wrong and it came out funny, or maybe there's just a quirky character that says and does things every other page that's outrageous. Now, if you've never read a book where anything funny ever happened, then you've either never read a book, or rarely read books. Now if that's the case then...first, what are you doing on this blog? If you're just looking for something to read that's cool I guess, but...Never mind, off topic. The point is, most people have read a book with something funny in it.
Now, if you're reading books, that don't seem to make any sense, random stunt after random stunt keeps happening, or a paragraph ends with "and then the dragon just puked everywhere. Unfortunately for every one it was all boiling magma, so the smell was awful. I told him not to eat the guy from that taco truck. Oh, well... I feel bad for the janitor that has to clean that mess up." Then your probably reading a parody. Which can be awesome depending on what you think is funny. If you like stupid random stuff that doesn't make any sense like I do, then you'll love parodies. And if you love stupid random stuff that is making fun of another book and pointing out everything that author found dumb about that book, then you'll love parodies. Several months ago before we read Hamlet, my English teacher asked us to write what we know about it, even if we didn't know really anything. And I didn't... So this was what I wrote about for roughly seven minutes:

"Well when I hear Hamlet, I think of the offspring of a ham. So, if a regular ham comes from a full grown pig, a hamlet comes from baby piglets. Example: I was at the grocery store stocking up on food and alcoholic beverages for a mighty Valhallan feast in the veterans hall, when I spotted the best  ham the store had to offer. I was about to call for a fork lift to get it in my cart when...I spotted its hamlets. It wasn't right to separate a ham from its hamlets. So we ate them all. The night was glorious."

Yeah...So that's what my imagination is like. If you think that was strange you should read my Beethoven's Moonlight sonata story, but maybe another time. Now granted, If you read stories like this, that doesn't mean they are parodies, there could be books or stories like this out there that aren't, bu the only ones I've read or heard of being sort of like this are. Of course there are also joke books, within which you'd probably find the comedy styles like this:

Q: What do you call a fake noodle? A: An Impasta 

Q: What do you call a man with no body and just a nose? A: Nobody nose. 

Q: What do you call a laughing motorcycle? A: A Yamahahaha 
But of course, I'm supposed to be doing jokes about books, not just  whats in them. So heres a few more knee slappers:

  Q. What did one book say to another?

A. I just wanted to see if we are on the same page. 

TEACHER: tell the class what book you read and what you thought about it?

PUPIL: It was the phone book. I did not understand it, it had too many characters. 

TEACHER: What book did you read?

PUPIL: It was Black Beauty.

TEACHER: What was it about?

PUPIL: About 120 pages 

And my personal favorite Book joke I found, Little Johnny goes to the library. 

Little Johnny asked and received help from a librarian on how to use the card catalog. In a little while, he approached the librarian again, wanting to know how to spell tequila.


T-e-q-u-i-l-a, spelled the librarian, and Little Johnny thanked her and went back to his search.

A short time later he came to the desk, looking quite distraught. I just can't find it. he said.

What book are you looking for? the librarian asked.

Replied Little Johnny, Tequila Mockingbird. 

Alriiiiiiiiiight! Now, hopefully at some point you thought something in this post was funny in some way. If so, then I feel accomplished. If not then...uh, lets just not get into it. Anyways, for those of you who like these forms of humor, I recommend parodies and joke books for future reading. If You dont think anything was for you, then have a good day, I guess. Some of these jokes I already knew, and some I got from a few websites, and here they are:

Book jokes

Other jokes

Sorry about the trippy color contrast, I'm not sure how to fix it.
~Let the mayhem begin.

Interdisciplinary Post

Assignment for the week is to "link" my blog subject to a different class subject I have. But the class I have this blog for is English... so the question arises. How does one link books to a subject other than English? Simple. Is story telling not an art? Are there not several forms? No two pieces are identical? Why not compare the various forms to art. Think about it. Don't paintings tell a story? And vice versa, While reading a book or listening to one, Don't they paint pictures? The answer is yes, though that opinion may just come down to who's being asked if your not a fan of either. 

Some of you may think I'm comparing apples to oranges, but I'm really not. You have to be imaginative in some way or another to either make art or publish a book. Putting that aside for now, lets compare genres. Non-fiction means something real. It wasn't made up. Generally with the term 'non-fiction' is associated with writing, but is it strictly only for writing? In the art world, it could be referred to as a still life. A depiction of something real. Stereo-typically for an example, most would think of a painting of some type. If your still not sure what one is, think of a painting of a bowl of fruit, or an existing landscape. When trying to paint one as close to real as possible your painting a still life. Something that exists, or 'is real'. 

Other genres could be fiction, fantasy, etc. These could all be linked to any type of art! Realistic fiction could be linked to a piece of art depicting something realistic, though not necessarily some thing that exists. Something straight out of someones imagination. It looks as though it could exist somewhere, but probably doesn't. Unrealistic fiction, like fantasy for an example, could be related to abstract or surreal art. Not a chance it could really happen or exist, but people like it. It sparks peoples imagination. 

Still don't believe writing and art can coexist? Well then continue reading, because they cross over with each other all the time. For those of you who are aware art and writing are linked together...you can stop reading any time, I guess. Examples of cross overs include but are not limited to: Comics, Manga, Graphic novels, any picture book or book with pictures, and yes, any book with a cover of some kind. That's right, if a book has any type of cover or color or anything its has been artistically approved. Even if a cover has nothing but the title and authors name, someone had to direct the color scheme and placement of said title and name of author. Someone was bound to think it looked good enough to publish. The saying "don't judge a book by its cover" wasn't created for no reason. Generally if a book cover looks good, it sparks your interest enough for you to pick it up and examine it. Thank the cover. Lastly there are so many different types of are constructed from words and books and pages with words on them its stifling. There is probably an uncounted amount of different art pieces and book covers out around the world. And I'm not one to get cheese saying that, but the meaning is literal. Its literally everywhere. Google it. I dare you.

~Let the mayhem begin. 

Guest Blog!!

Drum roll please!!! Today's post is, you guessed it, a guest blog. What is that you might ask? Basically fellow blogger Xochitl Cabrera, from Facial Expressions for the World, will take command of this blog post, when I finish up this intro. If you guessed that she would talk about her subject, you are sadly mistaken. If you figured she would be reviewing some form of reading material, then congrats! The literature she will be reviewing is a little horror comic called Enigma of Amigara Fault, by Junji Ito.




I chose to do my guest post on Kinsley's Blog about book reviews because she told me about this super creepy comic and suggested I should read it. After reading the comic, I was creeped out and decided to write about what I thought about the comic. The comic I read is a Japanese comic called Enigma of Amigara Fault by Juni Ito. Enigma of Amigara Fault is a horror comic about a earthquake that leaves people like shapes on mountains. There is only one of a kind so not just any random person can go into a hole. The holes leave people striking with fear and curiosity and somewhat hypnotizes them and forces them to find their hole. Once you find your hole you become attached to it and without knowing end up going in it. The weird thing is that there is no way out. Or at least that is what the people think. It is not until towards the end of the comic that they find a way out of the holes. This is where it gets weird. The people that came out of the holes were all deformed! According to a legend, the holes were made to get people to pay for their sins! They were paying by becoming nasty looking monsters that society would reject. After reading this comic I decided that I would not go hiking alone. EVER. Any ways, even though this comic was creepy and weird and somewhat nasty, I actually enjoyed reading it and recommend others to read it as well. Also the pictures shown on the comic are really weird because it shows how monster looking the people look when they come out of their holes. Before Kinsley told me about Enigma of Amigara Fault, I could not see myself reading any comics. Especially scary ones.  

Links:

Xochitl's Blog

Read the comic online

The book recluse here! I didn't find a site that sold this comic individually, and I'm not completely sure there are English copies available, but there's a link to read it online for free.

~Let the mayhem begin.

Review for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series including five books, under the genre of adventure and mythology. Young Percy Jackson, through a series of events finds out that he is not only a demigod, but a son of one of the Big Three: Poseidon. Once being introduced to the world of, what he had thought was ancient mythology, life just gets more and more hectic with monster attacks, dangerous quests, and of course the struggles of adolescence. Throughout the five books we meet new characters, different myths and the occasional bad pun. Follow Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood on their adventures across the U.S.

The Author Rick Riordan has won several awards for some of the books in the series and has been nominated for many others. While keeping the original myths as accurate as possible Rick Influences the plot of the story around many ancient tales, gods and the notion the, History repeats its self. Before becoming an official writer Rick worked as an English teacher, undoubtedly where he acquired his knowledge on writing and dialogue. While the Percy Jackson series may be his most famous, or popular, series, Rick he’s also written a few other book series. These books include: the heroes of Olympus, The Kane chronicles, 39 Clues, Tres Navarre series, and a few other independent books.

Rick Riordans style of writing, I think it’s safe to say, can be compared to that of Mark Twain. Why you may ask? Of all the books he wrote, he won the Mark Twain award twice, for the first two books in this series. He's a few other the awards he's earned.

1998 Shamus Award and Anthony Award for Big Red Tequila

1999 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original for The Widower's Two-Step

2008 Mark Twain Award for The Lightning Thief

2009 Mark Twain Award for The Sea of Monsters

2009 Rebecca Caudill Award for The Lightning Thief

2010 School Library Journal's Best Book for The Red Pyramid

2011 Children's Choice Book Awards: Author of the Year

2011 Children's Choice Book Awards: Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year for The Red Pyramid

2011 Wyoming Soaring Eagle Book Award for The Last Olympian

2011 Milner Award for Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

2012 Indian Paintbrush Award for The Red Pyramid

2013 Best Fiction Book for Children in Bulgaria for The Mark of Athena

Personally, this is my favorite series. It was the first series I ever read, and is probably part of the reason I love reading so much. Even before I read books just to read them, I was interested in the Greek myths we had to read in school. If you or your children love action, adventure, quirky characters and Greek myths, you’ll love these books. 

Source of information