We researched and discussed what genres and books people chose to read and what genres and books they tend to not read. We could more easily determine this by using the interactive graphs that were pictured on the webpage. The graphs consisted of colored dots where each area of dots was colored showing that genre group of readers and their interest. However, there were two graphs being shown one being a map labeled as “Mapped by genre mix” and the other being labeled as “mapped by network”. The genre related map showed what genres readers liked to use the most by using general data from shelves and reviews. The network map more so showed the specific books that readers choose to read, not the genres. The map better shows how readers can be become more connected through actual reading overlap and not genre labels.
We also learned about a new tool called t-sne which can easily turn complex data into dots and a graph and give the observer a visual perspective. After researching both areas of information it was nice to see how the different genre readers chose to fade away from the other certain genres. For example, as we saw and discussed when viewing the first graph, the readers that were mostly mystery – genre oriented seemed to have avoided the romance genre. A major point that was made which I remember is that since most women are the authors of these romance books, they don’t get much credit for them and are heavily ignored all the time. Knowing that this is true, it drives a community to back the romance books and become steady dots on the maps.
On Tuesday I was busy and distracted all class trying to set up my WordPress account so I missed some the points put out there. I do know that we discussed the Salem witch trials points of interest and how different areas spread of accusations depending on the m month plus the area. I also missed class last Thursday so I do have some catching up to do.
