Yesterday, GB at Eagleton Notes had a “Big Brother” post on his blog , to do with targeted marketing on the internet, and causing a bit of interesting discussion in the comment section.
This morning, when I opened my email inbox, I was reminded of his post when I found an email from Amazon – and I had to laugh (at myself)…
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
Do you have a favorite book from childhood? Check out a selection of timeless classics for kids of all ages plus books for the spooky season picked as our editors' favorites for Halloween.
Innocently, I said in a comment yesterday on GB’s post, that I’d not been receiving (daily) suggestion emails from Amazon… I should have kept in mind that I’ve only been a registred customer for a week and a half yet, and so far they’ve been pretty busy just sending me welcoming instructions etc which my brain did not sort as advertising (as I found the info useful).
Today’s email may just be a standard one because of Halloween coming up – but it could also just as well be based on some of my recent downloads of free classics.
What I am not, is a big fan of American-style Halloween. But I have to admit this must be very hard for Big Brother to deduct, considering that within the past week, I’ve been downloading – among other stuff…
…Several collections of classic fairy tales, the Complete Works of George MacDonald (see yesterday’s post), the Essential Works of Edith Nesbit, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Mythical Monsters, The War of the Worlds, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, and the Canterville Ghost…
On the other hand, if they’d been analyzing, shouldn’t they have come to the conclusion that this particular customer seems to already have just about all the reading material she might need for Halloween…???
PS. On second thought… Some of those books were downloaded from Project Gutenberg rather than from Amazon… Maybe BB can’t see those on my Kindle… ;)
5 comments:
I still never get any Amazon emails, but I guess that I opted against that when my account was set up. What I do get, though, is a list of suggestions based on what I recently looked at there.
Right now, I am so delighted to have found out that you are, like myself, an Edith Nesbit fan! I own several of her books and have loved them since childhood, my favourite ones being "The Enchanted Castle" and "The Enchanted City". Which ones are yours?
Meike, The Enchanted Castle is the only one that I'm absolutely sure of having read - in Swedish. Another title I recognize is The House of Arden, but I have no clear memory of it. Through the years I've come across lots of references to Edith Nesbit and her influence on other authors of children's books (I think, for example, that C.S. Lewis mentioned her as well). So I was delighted to find an e-collection of her works on Amazon. (I paid a few dollars for the compilation but the books are probably also available one by one for free.) So I look forward to reading some more. I still love reading children's books like that in between adult ones!
love that last pic... and oh yes, i am being bombarded daily with my newletter is signed up for, but also their Suggestions, and all their suggestions are taken from all the things i click on when i go there. yes hey do track our likes and dislikes and send accord ling.
several years ago, i went to Target on line, found 2 ottomans i wanted, but they were 80 each plus a lot of shipping. for a couple of months i would get emails with pics of them and 10 percent off, then 15 percent off. 2 months after i looked at them i got the email that said 20 percent off your order today with free shipping. BINGO, they are now sitting in my living room. so i like them sending me emails.
I own the "Castle" and the "City" both in German, which is how they were bought for me when I was a kid. It is definitely worth a look at the Amazon Kindle store, to see if I can find them for free (or at least at a low price) in English.
I have to say that I wasn't really complaining about the emails: I was commenting on the Big Brother aspect. Sometimes the Amazon emails are quite interesting and helpful. Often they are not. I have a delete button.
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