user254: Further to these comments ...

The book had 5 stars and so many reviews...its a terrible book...some kind of new age art of living...its so difficult to pick up a good book
where are the book recomendation on here...or you mean i just search books in question tab

... would it be appropriate or possible for this site to have a list of books?
I'm thinking of the following format:

A question asking for books
Many answers, one answer per book: which give the title and author, and a summary of the books contents.

The whole topic could be "community wiki".
People could leave comments to comment on a book, or edit or add to the summary in the answer; and maybe up-vote if they too recommend a book.
We did something a bit similar here:

book-of-the-month
How about a 'resource' tab?

If the answer is "no" then how else could we address the comments quoted above?

Update – the topic is started, see List of book recommendations

user254: It might become a long long list -- too long. Some people can recommend 50 books and more. Upvoting might help (to find popular books).
Alternatives:

Create some classification (subsections) for different types of book or topic (e.g. introductory books for beginners, meditation, etc.):

Different answers for different kinds of book, with several books per answer  -- for example, one answer for "Introducing the suttas", with several books in that answer
Different topics (different questions) for different types, each with one book per answer) -- for example, one topic for "Introducing the suttas", with several books in that answer

Recommend authors, instead of books (some authors have many books); i.e. have one answer per author, and describe/summarise the author's books.
Sankha's comment here suggests that the topic could be good collections (lists) of books -- perhaps a separate answer for each collection.


user43: In general, it sounds like a good idea. I'm worried about practicalities though. Like you said, posting one book per answer may make too many answers. Multi-book answers will probably look messy and upvoting them won't be as useful. Perhaps, one book per answer is not as bad is it sounds. I remember a similar question on Stack Overflow proper, and it ended up having hundreds of books but still managed to remain useful.

254: <p>Further to these comments ...</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/25763/can-buddhism-be-called-as-atheist-agnostic-or-theistic#comment43530_25766">The book had 5 stars and so many reviews...its a terrible book...some kind of new age art of living...its so difficult to pick up a good book</a></li>
<li><a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/25840/is-herman-hesses-siddhartha-a-misinterpretation-of-buddhism?noredirect=1#comment43634_25840">where are the book recomendation on here...or you mean i just search books in question tab</a></li>
</ul>

<p>... would it be appropriate or possible for this site to have a list of books?</p>

<p>I'm thinking of the following format:</p>

<ul>
<li>A question asking for books</li>
<li>Many answers, one answer per book: which give the title and author, <em>and a summary</em> of the books contents.</li>
</ul>

<p>The whole topic could be "community wiki".</p>

<p>People could leave comments to comment on a book, or edit or add to the summary in the answer; and maybe up-vote if they too recommend a book.</p>

<p>We did something a bit similar here:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="/questions/tagged/book-of-the-month" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;book-of-the-month&#39;" rel="tag">book-of-the-month</a></li>
<li><a href="https://buddhism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1614/254">How about a &#39;resource&#39; tab?</a></li>
</ul>

<p>If the answer is "no" then how else could we address the comments quoted above?</p>

<hr>

<h2>Update &ndash; the topic is started, see <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/25889/254">List of book recommendations</a></h2>
 254: <p>It might become a long long list -- too long. Some people can recommend 50 books and more. Upvoting might help (to find popular books).</p>

<p>Alternatives:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Create some classification (subsections) for different types of book or topic (e.g. introductory books for beginners, meditation, etc.):</p>

<ul>
<li>Different answers for different kinds of book, with several books per answer  -- for example, one answer for "Introducing the suttas", with several books in that answer</li>
<li>Different topics (different questions) for different types, each with one book per answer) -- for example, one topic for "Introducing the suttas", with several books in that answer</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Recommend authors, instead of books (some authors have many books); i.e. have one answer per author, and describe/summarise the author's books.</p></li>
<li><p>Sankha's <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/25840/is-herman-hesses-siddhartha-a-misinterpretation-of-buddhism?noredirect=1#comment43637_25840">comment here</a> suggests that the topic could be good collections (lists) of books -- perhaps a separate answer for each collection.</p></li>
</ul>
 43: <p>In general, it sounds like a good idea. I'm worried about practicalities though. Like you said, posting one book per answer may make too many answers. Multi-book answers will probably look messy and upvoting them won't be as useful. Perhaps, one book per answer is not as bad is it sounds. I remember a similar question on Stack Overflow proper, and it ended up having hundreds of books but still managed to remain useful.</p>
