Siftivo
Siftivo

The Siftivo Blog

On discovery, reading, and building tools that help you find books you'll love.

An illustration of a single lit book on a table with a hand gently pushing away a large sliding pile of other books beside it
product · 6 min read

The Best Recommendation Is No

The internet is great at telling you what to read and useless at telling you what not to. In an age of infinite books, the useful product says skip it.

Ben Garrison ·
An illustration of a tidy public bookshelf lit from the front, with a second larger stack of books behind it in shadow
product · 6 min read

The Books You Don't Log Matter Most

What you read, what you log, what you rate, and what you display are four different datasets. Recommendation systems only ever see the last one.

Ben Garrison ·
An illustration of a book on a pedestal under a spotlight, with a long line of unopened books queued behind it in shadow
culture · 6 min read

BookTok Is Building the Bestseller List It Already Controlled

TikTok now has an official bestseller chart, a curated summer list, and a checkout button. What happens when an algorithmic subculture joins the establishment.

Ben Garrison ·
An illustration of a tightly packed shelf of untouched book spines, with a single well-worn book lying open on the table below it
culture · 7 min read

Books Are Sexy Again. Reading Isn't.

Book mentions on dating profiles are climbing while daily reading has fallen 40% in twenty years. On the gap between owning, displaying, and finishing.

Ben Garrison ·
A collage of famous, frequently unfinished book covers on a warm background
culture · 4 min read

The Books Everyone Lies About Having Read

An honest verdict on ten famous books people pretend to have finished: which to fake guilt-free, which to half-read, and which actually earn the hours.

Ben Garrison ·
A collage of the most abandoned book covers on a warm background under the banner Most Abandoned
reading · 4 min read

We Read the 10 Most Abandoned Books on Goodreads So You Don't Have To. Here's Where Everyone Quits, and Whether You Should Push Through.

Where readers actually quit ten infamous books, from A Little Life to Ulysses, plus our honest verdict on each: push through, or quit guilt-free.

Ben Garrison ·
A collage of book covers we recommend reading instead, on a warm background
reading · 5 min read

Goodreads Recommends These 7 Books to Everyone. Here Are 7 We'd Hand You Instead.

The same seven books follow you everywhere. Here are seven we'd hand you instead, matched to what you actually loved about each one.

Ben Garrison ·
A collage of 2026 summer book covers on a warm background under the banner Required Summer Reading
reading · 4 min read

15 Books That Could Save Your Summer (2026 Edition)

Fifteen books worth your actual reading hours this summer, ranked by what earns the time, not by pub date. An antidote to the doomscroll.

Ben Garrison ·
An isometric illustration of a central book branching out through lines to a network of stacked book clusters, the shape of how books move through a reading culture
reading · 6 min read

Issue 001: The Siftivo Reading Index, Week of May 31, 2026

Fifty books in the heaviest cultural circulation this week, ranked. Fiction and Nonfiction Top 25s. The first issue of the Siftivo Reading Index.

Ben Garrison ·
An isometric illustration of a central book branching out through lines to a network of stacked book clusters, the shape of how books move through a reading culture
culture · 4 min read

The Bestseller List Tells You What Sold. We Wanted to Know What Was Being Read.

Why Siftivo is publishing a weekly Reading Index instead of yet another bestseller chart, and the gap between retail sales and reading culture.

Ben Garrison ·