Recommendation classes
A direct recommendation is a source-backed record where the person explicitly recommends, praises, assigns, gifts, or names the book as worth reading.
A documented citation is a secondary or bibliographic record that points to a recommendation but does not yet include a first-person quote. It stays labeled separately until stronger evidence is captured.
A book by a person is authored work. It can be more important than a recommendation, but it is not counted as a recommendation unless we also have a separate recommendation source.
A book about a person or company is context. It explains the person, institution, or system, but it is not treated as recommended by that person.
A contextual catalog book is included because the author or relationship matters to the catalog, not because someone recommended it.
Source quality tiers
Tier 1 sources are original public posts, interviews, podcasts, videos, books, speeches, or transcripts where the recommendation can be inspected directly.
Tier 2 sources are reliable secondary citations that identify the original context but still need a stronger primary-source receipt.
Tier 3 sources are weak indexes, unattributed lists, or unsourced claims. They can guide research, but they do not publish as recommendations.
What we do not publish
We do not publish recommendation rows when the source is missing, the quote cannot be inspected, the relationship is ambiguous, or the record is only affiliate-driven.
- No placeholder sources, images, or retailer IDs.
- No anonymous listicle claims as direct recommendations.
- No mixing books by a person with books recommended by that person.
- No paid placement in recommendation ranking.
Affiliate independence
Retailer links are a monetization layer on top of the catalog, not the reason a book appears. We may earn from some links, but recommendations are included because of the documented source.
From The Greats