twovictorianladies

I have a bone to pick with Amazon.com.

About a year ago I bought a Kindle. I love the Kindle, that’s not the problem. The problem is with the algorithms (is that spelled right?) that Amazon uses to make suggestions to you.

Remember my disparaging comment about SyFy Original disaster movies the other day? My guilty secret is that I like those movies. They’re so bad, they’re fun. And so are the literary equivalents. So on my Kindle I have a number of books, mostly the ninety-nine cent kind but some others as well, about things like hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, and killer viruses. Not the kind the turn people into zombies, however; the kind that earnest CDC or WHO researchers find a cure for just when it looks as if the city/state/country/world population is doomed. So sue me. I have a four hour a day commute; I do a lot of reading and it can’t all be Jane Austen – Jane didn’t write enough to keep me in books that long.

Okay, I made one mistake. I accidently ordered one zombie-maker. I realized what it was before the second chapter, went back to the home page and utilized the “remove from device” icon. That was $4.99 I’d never see again, but what the heck, there’s always going to be a few errors.

If Amazon had only used that book to send me zombie suggestions, I’d understand. But they used at least three killer-virus-everybody-dies books to justify sending me zombie suggestions. I don’t WANT zombie suggestions. I do not under any circumstances read zombie books or watch zombie movies. Ever. At all. You can take that to the bank.

I finally had to mark those three books, “Do not use for recommendations” since every one of the zombie books they suggested to me, came along with, “Recommended because you purchased, (book 1, 2 or 3)”. And now, having marked them that way, those books won’t be used to send me any more nice mindless killer virus stories.

Amazon, if you’re reading this, please take note:  There is nothing you could say or do that will ever make me knowingly buy a zombie story. You may as well stop sending me the recommendations because I’m just going to mark every single one of them, Not Interested.  But if you want to send me recommendations for books about mega-hurricanes or tsumanis or cool stuff like that, just remember; I can’t get the Syfy Channel on my Kindle.