Comment by gen220

The best way I’ve found for finding predictably enjoyable fiction is to read interviews with the authors I like, and read about the works and authors they admire or are influenced by. Or who they exchanged letters or communications with, if they’re long dead and no interviews proper exist.

Strongly recommend giving that a try yourself. And trying to build an algorithm around it!

Here’s an example: Tolstoy really admired Turgenev, who was friends with Theodore Storm and Gustave Flaubert, and greatly admired Gogol.

If you like Anna Karenina you’ll probably find something of value in Torrents of Spring, Immensee, Madame Bovary or Dead Souls.

It spiders out pretty quickly!