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The Reading DNA

@thereadingdna.bsky.social
7 followers 7 following 108 posts

A taste profile for serious readers. Book and audiobook recommendations built from taste, not trends. Private beta opening slowly.

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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 1h
You can now rate an audiobook's narration separately from the story. A great book with the wrong voice shouldn't drag down either rating. thereadingdna.com/start?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=open_access_launch&utm_content=bs-26
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 22h
Loved the book, not the narrator? You can now rate the narration separately from the story. Narrator-aware picks come next.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Finishing a whole series is not always a sign you loved it. Sometimes it is momentum. The ratings across the run usually tell the difference.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
A recommendation shouldn't arrive as a black box.
Graphic reading: Every read this comes with a because. Example reason: finished two voice-led novels this spring, kept one, and gave up on the slow one everyone else loved. Labelled illustrative.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Books have profiles too: pacing, prose, tone, humour. A good pick matches that profile to yours, not just the genre on the spine. thereadingdna.com
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The Martian, The Thursday Murder Club, The Hitchhiker's Guide. What's the thread, and what would you read next?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Resolved endings or open ones? It sounds like a small preference, but it shapes whether a book stays with you or just stops. Which do you prefer?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Sometimes you just wanted to know how it ended.
Graphic reading: Finished doesn't always mean loved. Tag: Finished, 3 stars, not kept.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Five books is enough to start a Reading DNA, and it tells you honestly how sure it is while the picture is still taking shape. thereadingdna.com/start?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=open_access_launch&utm_content=bs-22
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
In a reading slump? Try changing one thing, like pace or emotional intensity, instead of switching genre entirely. Small turn, different book.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A four-star rating from someone who rarely gives five means more than a four from someone who gives five to everything. Ratings only make sense against your own average.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
A librarian that answers from your own reading history.
Graphic reading: What if your librarian actually knew your taste? Example: You abandoned the last two slow-burn mysteries. Want something that starts faster? Footer: Ask it anything. It's read your history.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Reading DNA is open to everyone: a taste profile built from what you finish, abandon, keep, rate and listen to, with a reason on every recommendation. thereadingdna.com/start?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=open_access_launch&utm_content=bs-20
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Readers who finish dozens of books a year deserve discovery that keeps up, with reasons, not just lists.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A recommendation should come with its reasons. Here's what that looks like on The Reading DNA, using an example from the site.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A good bookseller asks what you loved and what you gave up on. Most apps only ask the first question.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Which popular book couldn't you finish?
Graphic reading: Popular is not equal to Personal. Footer: The book everyone loved that you couldn't finish: name it below.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Your backlist already knows your taste. The job is reading it properly. thereadingdna.com
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a quiet, haunting dystopian novel on audio, and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata is darker and stranger. Both are Japanese women authors, speculative leaning.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
No progression, promise: The Lies of Locke Lamora (heist fantasy, great narration) and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for historical. Curious what epic fantasy you did love? thereadingdna.com can match on taste.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings: near-future, feminist, very readable and not hard SF. If she has not read it, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler is an older classic that still hits.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you are enjoying witchy and spooky, try Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (cosy, dark edges, romance) and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, which is warm and funny.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Newer horror that works well on audio: Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (a haunting witch, properly creepy) and The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, which suits a King fan. Safe journey!
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Prose-first picks: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (fantasy, quietly eerie, gorgeous sentences) and Little, Big by John Crowley. Do you want horror that is literary and slow, or more unsettling and fast?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For a slump, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is hard to stop reading. What did you love most from your 2026 list? We built thereadingdna.com to match books to your taste, so happy to point you further.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is the gold standard for spooky season, and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is lush, creepy and hard to put down. Enjoy the library trip!
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Jeff Hays voices around 200 characters across Dungeon Crawler Carl. For plenty of listeners, the narrator is the book. We're building narrator-aware discovery into The Reading DNA. Coming soon.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Honest question: what's the book everyone loved that you couldn't finish?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Book and audiobook recommendations built from what you actually read.
Graphic reading: Taste, not trends. Book and audiobook recommendations built from what you actually read.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
How long you'll stay with a difficult character is one of the most personal things about how you read. thereadingdna.com/start?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=open_access_launch&utm_content=bs-15
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Finished isn't the same as loved. Sometimes you just wanted to know how it ended. Which book did you finish out of pure stubbornness?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Bestseller lists tell you what is popular. They can't tell you what fits you. thereadingdna.com
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Loved Project Hail Mary? Ask what you actually loved about it.
Graphic reading: If this is what you loved about Project Hail Mary: problem-solving momentum; a funny, likeable narrative voice; clear, plain prose; an unlikely friendship at the centre; optimism, earned. Then genre alone won't find your next book.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Rereads are underrated data. The books you return to say more about your taste than any list.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The right book for a Tuesday night is rarely the right book for a long flight. Mood belongs in the recommendation.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Star ratings flatten everything. A three-star book you finished in two days says something different from a three-star slog. thereadingdna.com
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Theo of Golden has travelled a long way on word of mouth. Warm, earnest, unhurried. If that's what you loved, genre won't find you the next one. Here's what will.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Question for heavy readers: do you track what you abandon, or only what you finish?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Same book, same five stars, opposite reasons.
Graphic with five red stars reading: Five stars aren't enough. Two readers give the same book five stars. Opposite reasons. The next book they'd love isn't the same one.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A recommendation should come with its reasons. If you can't see why a book was picked, you can't argue with it. thereadingdna.com/start?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=open_access_launch&utm_content=bs-09
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you haven't read it yet, The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas is a gorgeous gothic haunted-house story, and The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling is cosy witchy romance with small-town autumn energy. Spooky or cosy mood tonight?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon is the great Scottish novel of land and change, and for something recent, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is Glasgow to the bone. Enjoy the trip!
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
For fall without the too-much: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is eerie but restrained, and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a lush, creepy house story that builds slowly. Both very October.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Two that are better on audio than on the page: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, narrated by Ray Porter, and Born a Crime, read by Trevor Noah himself. Both make a commute fly by.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
When nothing hits, a short book in a genre you never read can reset the palate. What was the last one you truly loved? We built thereadingdna.com for exactly this: it maps your taste from books you've loved and suggests what fits.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution is still the essential one, and Richard White's The Republic for Which It Stands carries you right through the Gilded Age with real narrative pull. Good road company, both.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell explains how neural nets actually learn, no maths needed. You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane covers the same ground with lots of funny failed experiments.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The worst. Short and strange sometimes breaks it: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is under 250 pages and pulls you along like a dream. Or go back to an old comfort read, no pressure to finish anything new.
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Four science fiction novels. Three of them share a shape. Which one doesn't belong?
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The Reading DNA @thereadingdna.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If a narrator loses you, that's taste data too. Audiobook fit is part of the book.
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