The corporate hive mind knows what we like

Above: An illustration from the cover of Becky Chambers’ novel “Record of a Spaceborn Few.” (by Christopher Doll for Tor Books)

Some members of my family, and a number of my friends, refuse to order through Amazon.com . They prefer to use local businesses, they don’t like supporting the growing corporate takeover of all business, they fear Amazon is making us lazy as a culture … etc., etc.

And I understand their attitude. I don’t always agree with it. But I understand it.

I patronize local businesses whenever I can. I shop at Auntie’s Bookstore , for example. But I also shop at the two different Barnes & Noble stores that I know of. While they may be part of larger franchises, they are run by local people who also deserve my business.

(To be honest, I can’t walk into any bookstore without buying something.)

All that said, Amazon.com has its uses. Case in point: the book recommendations that my buying history suggests for me. In a Black Friday holiday email, I received the following book-purchasing tips:

“Record of a Spaceborn Few,” by Becky Chambers: The third in Chambers’ science-fiction “Wayfarers” series, the first two being “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” and “A Closed and Common Orbit.” Only problem? I’ve already read all three. The good news? It alerted me to Chamber’s fourth in the series, “The Galaxy, and the Ground Within,” which will be published on April 20. So, yay.

“Fresh Complaint,” by Jeffrey Eugenides: I’m not sure how this short-story collection ended up on my list, considering other suggestions were purchases I made recently such as Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series and the first installment in Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse series. It may be more that I was recently Googling the movie adaptation of Eugenides’ novel “The Virgin Suicides.” Either way, I may give it a try.

“The Complete Harvard Classics,” by Benjamin Franklin, et al.: I have a friend who bought this collection. He’s also the same guy who gave me a cartoon featuring a bespectacled man standing in front of a shelf of books with the titles spelling out “Books you will never read but only have to impress your friends.” The man turns to his friend and says, “I own the entire set.” Actually, though, you can’t earn a university degree in literature (which I did) without having read a good portion of these. So … l’ll pass.

“Devil in a Blue Dress,” by Walter Mosley: Read it years ago. But I may go back and revisit, along with the 13 other Easy Rawlins novels that Mosley has written.

“A Brief History of Time,” by Stephen Hawking: Read this one, too. It sits on one of my bookshelves someplace. Oh, and I’ve also seen the 1991 Errol Morris documentary.

“Letters From an Astrophysicist,” by Neil deGrasse Tyson: This is another offering from the author of the essay collection “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry,” which I’ve read and is likely why it was suggested to me. This one, though, is a sampling of the correspondence deGrasse Tyson has indulged in over the decades and is probably another one of the books on this list that I likely will avoid. The Kirkus reviewer wrote of the author that “Again and again he defends ‘science,’ ” which is his preaching to a choir that I am a proud member. And the reviewer ends up describing the book as “A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.” That’s as polite a dismissal as I have ever read.

“A Promised Land,” by Barack Obama: This is something that no doubt shows up on any number of reading lists, depending on one’s political persuasion.

Hmmm, re. that last one, think maybe Amazon.com has access to my voting record?

Considering how much of my data gets shared out there, for good and bad, nothing surprises me anymore.