11th
better world books?
The question of whether to link to Amazon when you’re making a book recommendation is a vexed question. Not long ago a reader of this blog chastised me and said I should link to Powell’s instead. Powell’s is a physical bookstore and buying books from them helps keep them physical, over there in Portland. But I am a cheapskate, and my readers are also cheapskates, and Amazon has cheaper books. And while I think Powell’s is really remarkable—it’s the Fairway of bookstores—their phone system is impenetrable and we can never get them to restock their n+1s. Finally, I really like the customer reviews on Amazon. And the various algorithms. Say what you will, but Amazon has done a great job with that.
Then today someone sent me a book recommendation via Better World Books. “Mm?” I thought. And clicking through I saw that they *don’t charge for shipping*, do discount books, and also they have customer reviews! I love customer reviews, and maybe these would be better customers than the Amazon customers, and would review my books better? Also these guys give money to charity, to create a better world.
But I am a suspicious man, and so I looked at a book whose Amazon page I know well—this one, or at Powell’s if you prefer—and discovered that the customer reviews on Better World Books had been lifted from Amazon. I didn’t know how I felt about this. Plagiarizing from Amazon to make a better world? Well… And so then in order to get a second opinion I went and read an article about Better World Books on TechCrunch—here. TechCrunch was very positive about Better World, but off I went into the comments. Some of the commenters raised legitimate concerns, but a librarian who works with Better World defended the store, and she seemed to be winning, until the very final comment, from “Adam”:
Well i know a guy and his wife who both work for this company. The guy beat his 3 year old daughter and put her in the hospitol. He is back in court again for punching her in the ear
And on and on it went! Holy shit! So now I have to figure out if this Adam is telling the truth, what the deal is with this violent employee (if Adam *is* telling the truth), and figure out if he still works at Better World. Man. And then I’ll finally know who to link to when I make my book recommendations on this Tumblr.
