# Amazon recommendations that make no freaking sense **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652 "2006-11-24T16:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/21 "2006-11-26T19:34:54Z")
[QUOTE=Alice The Goon] They once recommended to me the book **A Hand in the Bush: The Fine Art of Vaginal Fisting**. [/QUOTE] Hmm, do I dare to look this book up? On the one hand, I’d love to see it with my own eyes, but on the other, I’d hate to think what it would do to my own recommendations. Ah, what the heck. Wow. Not only does it exist, but it has 47 customer reviews. And some of them are hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/22 "2006-11-26T20:01:57Z")
I was annoyed by the [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) recommendations primarily because they would recommend books I already ordered/bought/read – oftentimes via [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/23 "2006-11-26T20:50:56Z")
> [@](#): > > If they had a third button, I’d want something like “I like this, but no thanks.” It’d be for those cases when you buy, say, a Harry Potter book, and they recommend to you every other version of the book–hardcover, adult paperback, adult hardcover, boxed set, etc. I mean, I don’t want them to think I don’t like Harry Potter, and I don’t own all of those books, but I want them to stop appearing on my recommendations! [Yeah, that would be nice](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=320048). ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/24 "2006-11-26T22:05:30Z")
Yeah, I suppose I should just create a “don’t buy this for me” wishlist and add all of those books to it. That’d do the trick, and get them off my back. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/25 "2006-11-26T23:49:38Z")
[QUOTE=Speaker for the Dead] Yeah, I suppose I should just create a “don’t buy this for me” wishlist and add all of those books to it. That’d do the trick, and get them off my back. [/QUOTE] Personally, I’d like a feature which would allow you to filter out certain genres, publishers, and authors. Being a historical fiction nut, I’ve had the distressing experience of being “tricked” by books which appear to be historical fiction but are really romance or even (God help me) “inspirational historical fiction.” Now, I always check the publisher to make sure it’s not Bethany House or any of those romance publishers. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/26 "2006-11-27T03:33:27Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] Personally, I’d like a feature which would allow you to filter out certain genres, publishers, and authors. [/QUOTE] That would be great. I do not want any of Robert Jordan’s books. Ever. Yes, I read fantasy and science fiction. No, I don’t want to read Jordan. Or Anne Rice, for that matter. I don’t care how many people love those authors, I can’t stand them. My daughter was really into the WoT books for a while, and bought them in hardback. I read them, because they were BOOKS IN MY HOUSE. Now, I don’t think that I’d read another Jordan book unless I was being paid well for it, or unless I knew that the book had been edited by someone new. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/27 "2006-11-27T23:46:35Z")
I was baffled as to why my DVD recommendations included something called **[The Wheels on the Bus - Mango Helps the Moon Mouse](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AYNG0W)**. (Includes “Full-length reptile show”!) The notes say “Recommended because you rated Monterey Pop - Criterion Collection” Uh, whaaat? Well, it turns out there actually is a connection: Roger Daltrey, who of course appeared with the Who at Monterey–is a voice actor in _The Wheels on the Bus_. ---
**Author:** ![YellowTail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5ac83/32.png) [@YellowTail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YellowTail)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/28 "2006-11-28T00:03:39Z")
I wish the recommender thingy could differentiate between the types of books your likely to only need one of versus many. If I buy a book on back pain, I don’t need 20 more titles on back pain. One is enough. But if I buy a mystery novel, there’s a good chance I like that genre and will buy more. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/29 "2006-11-28T03:44:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I wish the recommender thingy could differentiate between the types of books your likely to only need one of versus many. If I buy a book on back pain, I don’t need 20 more titles on back pain. One is enough. But if I buy a mystery novel, there’s a good chance I like that genre and will buy more. The recommender doesn’t know anything about genre or subject matter. All it knows is what other people have bought. So it’ll never recommend you “one is enough” books. Apparently, a lot of other people who bought that book on back pain also bought other books on back pain. So the problem isn’t the software not knowing that that’s a “one is enough” book; it’s that you don’t have the same opinion as the rest of the populace on what constitutes a “one is enough” book. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/30 "2006-11-28T11:58:09Z")
“We recommend Fred Astaire’s **Singing In The Rain** dvd because you recently bought **Paint Shop Pro Ten**.” Huh? I like the recs in general, and have found several decent reads that way, but I wish they wouldn’t make cross media-type recs like the one about. My only other pet peeve is that there’s no way to tell it to stop recommending software for macs. I’ve said I’m not interested in 100 mac programs, but it still suggests them repeatedly. I don’t have a mac! I’m never going to buy a mac program! ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/31 "2006-12-04T01:08:13Z")
[QUOTE=Antigen] I was looking at The Phantom Menace DVD recently, and they offered me Passion of the Christ as a recommendation. I don’t get it. [/QUOTE] They are both movies about a man of virgin birth who becomes a messianic figure and dies a tragic death. =D ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/32 "2006-12-06T19:07:56Z")
They recommeded _Old Jewish Comedians_, because I bought _A Treasury Of Victorian Murder_. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652/33 "2006-12-06T20:45:57Z")
[QUOTE=YellowTail] I wish the recommender thingy could differentiate between the types of books your likely to only need one of versus many. If I buy a book on back pain, I don’t need 20 more titles on back pain. One is enough. But if I buy a mystery novel, there’s a good chance I like that genre and will buy more. [/QUOTE] Well, there is. You can tell Amazon not to use that particular item to make recommendations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-recommendations-that-make-no-freaking-sense/381652.md?page=1)