Yesterday, I shared that I caught up with a friend who’s a serial entrepreneur and avid reader. He’s serious about learning and solving problems, so for years he’s made reading a priority. He has time on his schedule early every morning to read books (I do too).

Today, I’ve been thinking about another takeaway from that conversation. One of his book discovery methods is paying attention to other books mentioned in the books he reads. (Many books cite other books when they borrow concepts.) He likes this approach because an author doesn’t usually mention a book if it isn’t worth reading or it’s not helpful—a mention is like a quality filter. Also, the suggested book will likely align with the period, industry, or person he’s studying. Suggested books allow him to go deeper into an area he’s already learning about. They keep him on topic.

I, too, use books to discover books (see here), so this resonated with me and got me thinking.

The pain point around this approach is that you must read a book to find the suggested books. The suggestions are like needles in a haystack. This isn’t an issue with a book I’m currently reading, but what If I want to know what books are mentioned in a book I read awhile back? Or what if I find a book and want to see what books mention it to determine its quality? As far as I know, that’s impossible. It’d be great to see a list of all the books mentioned in a particular book and a list of all other books that mention it. Books are connected, but it’s impossible to see the connections. Visually displaying those connections could unlock lots of value for readers and make it easier to discover useful books.