Gnooks, Gnods and What The Heck Is All Of This?
I found a really creative site today. It’s a lot of fun and it provides a lot of information. The name of the site is Gnooks, which I am assuming is pronounced, “nooks.” It is a rather unique way of researching literature and authors. It also has a forum and a nifty little shopping tool.
But the best part of Gnooks, in my opinion, is the Literature Map. This isn’t a traditional map. When I found the site, and entered in an author’s name (I chose Willa Cather) I expected to find a dot on a map. Literally (no pun intended). But it didn’t work that way at all.
Literature Map provided what could best be described as a word cloud of author’s names. The theory behind the map is that if I liked the author who I entered, I would also like these authors. I tested it a bit.
By entering John Steinbeck, I found that I would probably also enjoy F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Henry Miller, Franz Kafka, and many others. Each name was a link that also produced another word cloud and more authors were presented.
I think this is an ingenious way to discover authors. Some of the names I wasn’t familiar with, therefore it served the purpose of expanding the potential reading I could do. Here is the progression I followed:
- John Steinbeck
- John Irving
- Isabelle Allende
- Annie Proulx
- Annie LaMott
- Anne Tyler
- Amy Tan
Granted by choosing names of known favorites, I did hedge my bets a little, but should I have explored into names I wasn’t familiar with, I would have found some new material for my reading list. But it doesn’t end there; this site is now going to help me find books by the author I have decided to pursue.
So I returned to the front page of Gnook and typed in “Amy Tan” in the literature locator, and was taken to a page that listed many places to buy her books. It really did cut out a lot of searching and with the prices posted, I could tell exactly where the good deals could be found.
They also have a forum for discussion of authors and a tool that helps you find authors based on a selection of your three favorite books. This tool worked well too, but I liked the literature map better.
Take a look at Gnook. I think you will have a great time there. Bookmark it for those days when you are wanting to start a new book and discover a new author. This site makes it fun to find new books to explore and widen your world, just a little bit more.
Gnooks is a part of a greater whole, Gnod, created by Marek Gibney. Gnod also covers movies and music in the same manner as they cover books.
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