Snagged one!

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Snagged one!

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1JFCooper
Maio 28, 2009, 6:02 pm

I just got word from Abby that I've been given an Early Review copy of The Ascent of George Washington. YAY!

I'll be reading it and comparing Ferling's conclusions with Ellis's conclusions from His Excellency.

I am one happy reader today!

Daniel

2walbat
Maio 28, 2009, 7:33 pm

I was happy to get the same message myself today. Guess I'll have to shift my attention from the 1930s momentarily and return to the 18th century for a while. Too bad there aren't more non-fiction works of this caliber available from Early Reviewers.

By the way, there's already one good review of Ferling's book on LT, by JBD1. Guess we'll have to find other things to say about what I expect to be an excellent read.

Phil

3walbat
Maio 28, 2009, 7:33 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

4TLCrawford
Maio 28, 2009, 8:16 pm

I am getting a copy of John Dittmer's Good Doctors. It looks like it is right up my alley.

5GoofyOcean110
Jun 3, 2009, 12:07 pm

I'll be getting Good Doctors from the Early Reviewer batch - we can compare notes!

6mrkurtz
Jun 7, 2009, 6:37 pm

So there are four of you who received an Early Reviewer book from May. May I ask how you were lucky enough to get Early Reviewer books, or is American History with the topic 'Snagged One' just a place to come and crow?

7AnnaClaire
Jun 8, 2009, 11:45 am

>6 mrkurtz:
You can make an educated guess as to why you recieved any particular Early Revuewer book: there's an Algorithm that chooses recipients based on a snapshot of our libraries just before the batch goes up, combined with a list of books it's told is similar to the outgoing book.

Frankly, the Algorithm has been getting better at matching books to people, IMHO. My first ER book was Nearly Human, despite the fact that I don't even have a single Jane Goodall, or even either of the two genetics-based history books I have listed in the same Dewey number. This month, in contrast, I was a bit surprised* to be told I was getting The Ascent of George Washington, but this title's a better match to my library (and I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I own another John Ferling book). And some of the books I recieved last year were already pretty good matches.

*I've not gotten a book in a while, but I had recieved more than my share at once and was content to let others have their turns.

8TLCrawford
Jun 8, 2009, 1:18 pm

Oh, there is an algorithm. That makes more sense that just dumb luck, although I am sure some of that is involved. This is only the second time I requested any titles. There were only one or two other ones that I was interested in, all histories. Since the other three who received books and posted here spend/waste almost as much time here as I do, and there were several books of each title offered and two titles mentioned, I did not think anything about it.

However knowing there is an algorithm explains how I got the one I did. Last semester I wrote a paper for a class on the history of medicine and added several titles in that field to my library. I also have a strong interest in labor history, which often bumps into civil/human rights issues.

Or it was just dumb luck.

9GoofyOcean110
Editado: Jun 9, 2009, 10:04 am

I've heard about this mysterious Algorithm. Perhaps this is a rumor or a misunderstanding, but I thought it also took into account the number of books a person requested per batch (fewer, giving better odds, as interpreted to mean that you really wanted a particular book). I would imagine that the final decisions were ultimately neuron-based, not neural-net based (sorry about my poor excuse for nerd humor). Any case, I think there's a thread on the Early Reviewers group that discusses this in detail.

I think this time around I only requested the Washington book and the Good Doctors. I suppose Algorithm may have matched me based on either The Art and Politics of Science or Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician, the first of which includes the politics of NIH, and the latter touches on historical medicine. Good ol' Al.

JFC, walbat, and AnnaClaire, congrats on the Ferling book, I am looking forward to your reviews!

10mrkurtz
Jun 9, 2009, 11:31 pm

That is interesting information about the possibility of an algorithm that helps select who get the Early Reviewer books. I recently completed reading The Pilgrim's Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity Reason and
Romancism by C. S. Lewis and I sent the folowing to a few friends:
This is a fable.
This is the tale of a man from Tennessee. He dreamed he would be a super hero to his people. When he grew up he became a senator. In his spare time, he created the internet. He became Vice-President and visited all of the countries of the world. When he became President of the United States, he passed legislation that stopped global warming. What was his name? He did not have a name,
****
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****
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this was an Al- le- Gore-y.

And the only neural-net based software that I have seen was an integrated neural-network-based fuzzy logic control and decision system (IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 40 Issue 12 (Dec. 1991).