Any Suggestions?

Constantly on the look out for new stuff, I am always trying to get suggestions for stuff to watch, listen to, or read. This can be difficult. Friends suggest books that I find boring. Co-workers rave about movies I end up sleeping through. New bands don't seem to be as good as my old standards. If you have this problem let me recommend a couple cool web utilities

For music: Pandora. I have already got my entire family hooked on Pandora. Pandora is an online radio station program. Using an artist you enjoy they consult their vast database to find music that is similar. Sometimes they play stuff I already know and love but mostly it is new. Pandora also learns the more you use it. As you listen you can give songs a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Pandora uses these ratings to fine tune what they play. You can have up to 100 stations which provides tons of variety. If you haven't tried it you should.

For books: Amazon. You can use the online bookstore to help you find things you might want to read. Amazon tracks the buying habits of their shoppers (can you say Big Brother?) this gives them a large database. You can use that vast database to your advantage. To do this log into your Amazon account. Make a wish list of all your favorite and most hated books. Then from your Amazon homepage click on "improve my recommendations" and rate your books. Amazon will now give solid recommendations based on those ratings. If you already have lists or a long buying history with Amazon just go straight to "improve my recommendations". Conceivably you could do the same thing for movies but I like to use something else.

For movies: Netflix. We all know I love Netflix. Like Amazon, Netflix tracks its users activity to create recommendations. These recommendations can be spookily accurate and like Pandora the more you rate the better they are. If you don't want to pay for a subscription you can still use Netflix to get great recommendations. All you do is sign-up for a free trial. Then before they can send you any movies (or before the month is up) put a hold on the account. This way you can rate movies, recieve recommendations but don't have to pay. However keeping Netflix on the lowest plan is only going to set you back $5 a month and is well worth it.

For all three: Tastkid. Tastekid is the simplest and easiest tool to use. Simply type in a band, book or movie you like and it will spit out ten suggestions. The suggestions are varied and pretty accurate considering the amount of information you gave it. I recently introduced my sister to this and she was enthralled. I highly recommend it for those times when you just want a good suggestion with minimal effort.


So now you have no excuse not to be constantly finding new and interesting things to read, watch or listen to. Good luck and drop me any good suggestions you might have!