This guy's reading choices aside, this is further proof that Amazon takes their recommendations very, very seriously and understands that good recs = revenue. B&N - I'm not sure what they understand. B&N just doesn't seem to get it. Their Book Clubs could be great communities - if they were about community, not selling books (the sales will come folks!). And frankly, think outside the box folks. A recycled forum is just so lacking. The good thing about B&N is that they can often get the book there faster than (non-prime) Amazon. But when it comes down to it, I still do most of my nerd purchasing at bookpool. They don't try to recommend or sell me anything, but what I buy from them, they get right, and get it to me fast.

I remember really wanting to like B&N e-mails. The thing that annoyed me was that they would always pretend to have great deals just for me. Then I realized that all of their 20% off deals would still cost me more than buying the book from Amazon at their normal price. Plus as alluded to in the article, I never saw any books/movies/CDs that jumped at me. I finally gave up and unsubscribed.

I love Border's e-mails on the other hand. They send me coupons varying from 10%-40%. I think that they do data mining to figure out which e-mails I respond to. I'm trying to teach their learning algorithm that I only use 40% off coupons;-)

I don't want to get junk e-mail from _anyone_. I always uncheck any preference boxes and it drives me wild when companies ignore that. Amazon seems to be a good citizen, but Expansys, AoC, Waitrose and a few others are persistant offenders.

Agreed. Amazon rocks. But I'd recommend that guy to change his habits though: classical music is better for you than junk common sense literature. I haven't read all of those books, but some. Maybe others are better, but I doubt it. When Peter Norvig joked at startup school about lack of substance in these "economics for masses" books, the audience audibly agreed.

I don't know if you should judge another's reading selection.

sure you should, watch this.

Adults who list "Harry Potter" among their top books are morons.

What if they list Tolkien books or have a forum nick from Lord of the Rings? By the way, 'Nazgul' and 'Narsil' aren't two words that would normally go together.

(LoTR > Harry Potter) x infinity

and those that list knuth or shakespeare are trying too hard ;-)

this is fun! you may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but I bet you can judge a person by their books (in a 'sufficient but not necessary' sense.)

which is why I wanted to make a dating site based on how closely related two people's book collections are.

librarything seems to be getting it right.

But this is where online retailers have a massive advantage. Amazon knows what we really buy, not just the stuff we like to brag about. Even around here, I bet people have bought more 'how to get rich' junk - let along Grisham and Clancy - than they have hardcore CS texts.

come to think of it, maybe that's the B&N strategy: appeal to the snob inside us. Tell us "you may just be buying thrillers and porn, but we know that you're an opera-lover deep down".

I'm not saying it's a good strategy, mind...

Yeah, this is surprising from B&N. If Qdoba can track all the burrito purchases I make, B&N can surely keep track of what books I have. Once you have the data, making recommendations isn't rocket science.