How AI Is Ruining Book Recommendations

Hi friends,

This newsletter is a bit of a departure from my usual fare, but if you enjoy my book recommendations, I hope you'll read it.

Have you recently searched for a book using Google? Maybe you wanted "books for 10 year olds" or "mystery novels for kids."

If you have, you probably noticed a drastic change in the search results recently. That's because Google now employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recommend book titles to you. And it serves up a lot – A LOT – of advertisements for individual books.

Sure, some of those books your kids may enjoy. But why is Google suggesting them to you? And are they actually good?

What you won't see at the top of search results are lists curated by people who have read every single book they recommend. You'll see posts to Reddit or Quora (why oh why?) and you'll see lists curated on sites that are built using AI (bad). If you are lucky, you'll see library lists (good!) or goodreads (so-so).

What you rarely see anymore are book lists like the ones I make. Personally, I think I have a pretty good list of books for 10-year-olds, but you have to scroll past 75 other options before you get to it. (Spoiler alert: nobody does that.)

It's hurting content makers like me. My book lists receive very little traffic from search engines now and the only reason my business is still here is because of my non-book content like the screen-free activities and games I share.

Look, I'm not complaining, because that's life and AI and ads are not going away and I may need to change my business model (sadly, my bank does not accept book recommendations in lieu of a mortgage payment). But you should be aware of what's going on because then you can make informed decisions about how you get your book recommendations.

I will continue to update and improve my current book lists (I have over 300 of them now, which you can peruse here!) and I will continue to make new read alike book lists because I really enjoy curating them. But I am doing it for you, my newsletter subscribers, not because anyone will find them fresh through a Google search (Spoiler alert: they won't).

What can you do? You don't need to do anything. However, since the only way new folks will discover my book lists is through you, I'd love it if you spread the word to your friends and colleagues! Encourage them to subscribe to this newsletter, or share a favorite book list with them. Inform others about the best way to skip over the AI and ad content at the top of search engine results so they can find the best books for their kids.

But most of all, KEEP READING TO YOUR KIDS!

Want to see all my book lists? Bookmark the index page of all the lists here. They are organized by type (picture, poetry, graphic novel, etc.), age and genre.

Happy reading,
Erica

P.S. A heartfelt thank you from me for all the kind words and encouragement I've received from you over the years. I keep every email you send about books your kids loved or how you've started reading poetry or new games your family enjoyed. Group hugs for everyone!

TL;DR: AI and sponsored ads can't recommend books, skip over them in Google search and look results from actual book bloggers. Spread the word.