Literature Map

While checking out an author to see if I wanted to read and review her book, I came across a fun way to explore authors: Literature Map

Type in an author's name, and an affinity map appears. The closer two authors are to each other, the more readers there are who like both of them.

It's not perfect--one of my favorite authors shows up all alone, poor fellow! He's in a class by himself, I guess. If you enter a top best-selling author, you're likely to get mostly other best-selling authors, and I'm not impressed with the YA selection.

But some of the results are spot-on. (I decided against the particular book I was considering, only partly due to her Literature Map results--though for those who enjoy crime fiction, she's a popular choice).

In any case, it's a fascinating way to spend 10 minutes, and who knows? You may just discover a new favorite.