How Gemini successfully picked out my next read

When I’m in a reading slump, I like to go online and get suggestions for my next book. This includes asking people on Reddit or browsing through lists on apps like Goodreads, but I tried something different this time. I recently made the switch from Google Assistant to Google Gemini on my Android, and I decided to let it figure out what my next read was. It’s useful in the workplace, so why not reading suggestions?

Google Gemini

Google Gemini is an AI assistant designed to boost productivity and creativity, integrated with Google applications such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube, and accessible through the Gemini mobile app or the Google app on iOS devices.

Instead of letting it pick blindly, I told Gemini my favorite book is The Hobbit, and asked for five suggestions for what to read next. I’m as wary as they come when it involves AI, but I came away impressed with the response. Instead of coming back with a generic answer, Gemini backed up its suggestions with tidbits about the books and helped sell me on why I should choose one of them as my next read.

Gemini did a good job picking out my next book

An impressive showing

With a famous book like The Hobbit, you can easily guess one of the suggestions. Other than The Lord of the Rings, Gemini recommended The Princess Bride by William Golding, The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin, Watership Down by Richard Adams, and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Gemini sort of cheated by recommending an entire series, like Earthsea and Narnia, but it’s hard to argue with the results.

In fact, Gemini understood me so well that I have already read four of the five suggestions, and they are all sitting on my shelf. The only book I haven’t read is Watership Down, so I’ll need to add that one to my cart. For an additional test, I gave Gemini a lesser-known book just to see how it’d do, and I can confirm it’s a good tool to find your next book if you’re struggling with what to read next. I’m actually shocked at how it does such a good job that I’ve often already bought and read the books it suggests next.

I trust Gemini with my books

I’ve seen enough

I wanted to try something a little less famous than The Hobbit just so Gemini didn’t have so much of the internet to scour for information. Instead of The Hobbit, I told it my favorite book was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and the results were still impressive. Gemini said if I was a fan of the unreliable narrator and suspenseful plot, then I would enjoy The Girl on the Train, Big Little Lies, The Silent Patient, and Sharp Objects.

Admittedly, I haven’t read any of those books, but The Silent Patient and Sharp Objects are both sitting on my bookshelf asking to be read. I already assumed Sharp Objects would be a good pick considering it’s written by Flynn and was turned into a good HBO series. In fact, The Silent Patient is the only book from that list that hasn’t been adapted into a series.

AI catches a lot of flack, and rightfully so in many cases, but this is a scenario where I see how helpful it can be. If you’re like me, you have bookshelves full of books you haven’t read, and that’s overwhelming when you’re trying to pick something new to read. Instead of blindly picking, you can get Google Gemini to curate a selection for you depending on your mood and favorites, and the suggestions I was given for The Hobbit and Gone Girl are hard to argue with. I can say this is a tool I’ll continue to use in the future to pick out my books.

Maybe I’ll begin to branch out and have it pick out dinners eventually, but I’ll stick with books for right now.