Grumble, grumble, Amazon

[danalwyn]

Just bought some books on Amazon.

Now they're recommending books by Glenn Beck to me.

Apparently I have to be more careful about what I buy.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

OK, everyone else is wondering, but I have the guts to ask...

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU BUY?

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

Among other innocuous items, a used copy of this (http://www.amazon.com/Military-2004-2005-International-Institute-Strategic/dp/0198566220/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254435244&sr=1-2), which is probably the guilty culprit.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Ah. Sad that that triggers the Beckathon.

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

It's weird; there are other books that I can see causing that, but this is one that's not so common.

I wonder if this is just random association, or if people really buy the two together.

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

You can go into your settings and delete it out of your browsing history so undesirable recommendations don't haunt you. (You click on where it says danalyn's amazon.com, and then go down to the bottom of the page and pick "view and edit your browsing history".) This is particularly useful when I follow a link off something on the net to view a book or film that I would never, ever buy (or anything in the same type), but want to read the details of.

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

I have a funny feeling that I'm going to be using that kind of feature a lot in the future.

I've got to stop spending money somehow.

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Amazon is Evil, with their recommendations and one-click shopping. It's like an open street display of liquor and drugs to entice addicts -- that looks good, and that... and that... "Hello, my name is Jackal, and I'm a bibliophile." (Hangs head.)

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, everything I want is so expensive it brings me screaming to a halt. Unfortunately, some of those used books are temptingly cheap (and without the shipping prices they look even cheaper).

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

If you're buying used check all the prices against www.abebooks.com and www.alibris.com. Amazon sellers frequently inflate their prices in my experience, and it's possible to get the same books at substantially lower prices at other online retailers, even though it means paying for shipping. I recently picked up a reference for work that was going for $89 USD on Amazon.com for $25 USD on Abebooks, for example. Weighed that way the $8 shipping was negligible. Of course none of this helps with actually curtailing book buying, but I can quit any time... *twitches*

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

So far, for the books I'm interested in, they're about the same. It's always good to have more sources, but the prices seem remarkably consistent (within a dollar or two for small things and 5% for bigger ones). Part of this is I'm looking for books that I think are only sold by certain vendors, which is probably at the root of the problem. It's probably the same people just selling through different front-ends.

Thanks for the rec though.