Literature Map

So, I was thinking of buying Someone a book and I was looking for ideas. I knew s/he liked certain authors so I remembered this helpful website.

You just type the name of the author into the box and it gives you a chart of other writers’ names. The closer they are in proximity to the name you typed in, the more similar their writing style is and the likelier the reader would like them.

Here’s Janet Evanovich…


Here’s my pal Julie Anne Peters …

Here’s another of my favorites, Mary Roach …

And you can click on any of the names and go further. So from Mary Roach’s page, I see Bill Bryson, who leads me to Jasper Fforde who leads me to…

You can get lost in here for hours, discovering all kinds of interesting authors. It’s only August, but I bet you could get your holiday shopping done too, if you don’t get lost in the website for four months. (Don’t forget to pick up a little sumpn-sumpn for yourself. And for me.)

Who is your favorite author? Did you discover any links to new authors? What will you be buying me?

6 thoughts on “Literature Map”

  1. I typed in Dave Barry. Yes, I can see P.J. O’Rourke being a close match, and even Garrison Keiller, but just as “similar” a writer, according to this site, was Jesus. Jesus was way closer to Dave Barry than Bill Bryson. Jesus a humor writer? Well, I guess to Christopher Hitchens, yes…

  2. OMG! How do I not know about this? Why have you not shared this with me before? Between this and new videos of squealing babies, I think my day is shot. Today’s new motto: “Deadlines: I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

  3. Me again. I put in “Sarah Palin” and only one other name came up on the whole screen, and it was so closely related that it entirely overlapped Sarah’s name. I couldn’t even read it, so closely were they entwined. So I clicked on it, and it showed the second name: Glenn Beck. Jesus was nowhere to be found.

  4. George … I thought you were yanking my chain so I plugged in Dave Barry again … which did indeed lead me to Jesus (in a Literature Map kinda way) … where I also see Charles Darwin, Satan, and You … which leads me to Janet Evanovich, Douglas Adams and Me … which leads me to Beverly Cleary and back to Jesus.

    Must … stop … playing … here ……

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