I’m looking forward to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s memoirs, Permanent Record, (previously) and just pre-ordered a copy on Amazon. Given the title, I thought it might be interesting to share what Amazon represented as “Frequently bought together” with it and put in its “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” carousel.
Under “Frequently bought together” are Randall Munroe’s How To, a collection of “absurd scientific advice” offered by the cartoonist’s famous stick-figure characters, and Talking To Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell’s ill-received latest.
In the “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” carousel are books from Glenn Greenwald, Philip Mudd and Snowden himself, all on similar topics. Books dominate the section, in fact, and Amazon reports that viewers of Permanent Record only checked out three things that were not to be read: Sarotti Scho Ka Kola, described as a “famous German chocolate”, 20 orange snappy handles, which go on thin metal bucket handles to make them easier to carry, and the Old Smokey Jumbo Grill, pictured above.
If you click the links in this post, our permanent records will be forever entwined in Amazon’s database, and I’ll get my cut.