Literature Map

This is kind of fun. :) It's a map of writers, placed by who else readers who like them also like. So frex., if a lot of people like Bernita Harris AND Charles Gramlich AND Shauna Roberts, they'd all appear near each other in the map.

Unfortunately, the map is missing a lot of lesser-known writers; obviously this is a hole that needs to be filled, right? You can go to this page and enter the names of writers you think should be on the map, in the "Suggest a new Writer" box at the top. You can also vote for or against the top ten almost-made-it writers in the list below. If you suggest someone who's already been suggested, it counts as a vote for that writer. If you suggest someone who's already on the map, it'll just tell you so; that's not a problem.

Note: looking at the list of names to be voted on, most of them are (sort of) valid but have some problems with how they were entered. Sticking with full names, first-name-first, is probably best; using multiple formats of someone's name just splits the votes.

From this page you can enter the name of a writer, and if they're on the map, you'll be shown that writer's chunk of the map -- their name, surrounded by the names of other writers "near" the first writer. So if you like the writer whose name you entered, you might also like the others, because a lot of readers like both. Different names are at different distances; I'm assuming nearer names are more likely to share a reader's list with the central name.

This is fun to play with -- it's a great time sink. :) There definitely need to be more writers on the map, though. Come enter your favorites!

Angie

PS -- thanks to Emily Veinglory for linking to this.

[EDIT: links, links, I do know how to do links. :P I originally posted this on a Yahoo mailing list where HTML links don't work, and forgot to fix them for here. :P ]