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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 13 of 13. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by noa on February 5, 2003, at 19:31:02
When I tried to link the book August to Amazon, the confirmation page gave a long list of other books, not this one. I kept asking for more links, and this book never came up. But then the link ended up working. I'm confused.
Posted by Dr. Bob on February 5, 2003, at 20:57:05
In reply to Amazon link--huh?, posted by noa on February 5, 2003, at 19:31:02
> When I tried to link the book August to Amazon, the confirmation page gave a long list of other books, not this one. I kept asking for more links, and this book never came up. But then the link ended up working. I'm confused.
It read your mind? :-) Seriously, what was the book?
Bob
Posted by dreamerz on February 5, 2003, at 21:46:09
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by Dr. Bob on February 5, 2003, at 20:57:05
> > When I tried to link the book August to Amazon, the confirmation page gave a long list of other books, not this one. I kept asking for more links, and this book never came up. But then the link ended up working. I'm confused.
>
> It read your mind? :-) Seriously, what was the book?
>
Wow...hold on...this doesn't make sense.
The book was called August right Noa?
Bob didn't notice that...but the post still doesn't make sense..
Is this twilight zone-ish.
I'm dense , confused and Bob has BIG feet~~~~ heeheee:-)
Posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:01:06
In reply to Re: Amazon link » Dr. Bob, posted by dreamerz on February 5, 2003, at 21:46:09
Yes, "August" by Judith Rossner.
And here are the links that get listed in the confirm post page:
Link to one of about 7717 books at Amazon:
1. Disability Workbook for Social Security Applicants: Managing Your Application for Disability Insurance Benefits, Revised and Expanded August 2001
by Douglas M. Smith2. Cyberlaw: Text and Cases
by Gerald R. Ferrera, Stephen D. Lichtenstein, Margo E. K. Reder, Ray August, William T. Schiano3. The Piano Lesson (Plume Drama)
by August Wilson4. Fences
by August Wilson, Lloyd Richards5. Electric Motor Repair
by Robert Rosenberg, August Hand6. Snow in August
by Pete Hamill7. The Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman, Robert K. Massie8. The Story of Ruth: Twelve Moments in Every Woman's Life
by Joan D. Chittister, John August Swanson9. Two Trains Running (Plume Drama)
by August Wilson10. August Magic
by Veronica Anne Starbuck11. Light in August: The Corrected Text (Vintage International)
by William Faulkner12. Basic Engineering Calculations for Contractors
by August W., Jr Domel13. August Sander: Citizens of the 20th Century: Portrait Photographs 1892-1952
by August Sander, Gunther Sander, Ulrich Keller14. Joe Turner's Come and Gone: A Play in Two Acts
by August Wilson15. Pandora's Box
by Susan Meiselas, Mistress Raven, Richard August, Mistress Delilah16. The Milwaukee Road: Its First Hundred Years
by August William Derleth, Roger H. Grant, H. Roger Grant17. International Business Law (3rd Edition)
by Ray August18. Aris-Business Process Frameworks
by August-Wilhelm Scheer19. August Sander: 1876-1964
by August Sander, Susanne Lange, Manfred Heiting, Chris Goodden20. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play in Two Acts
by August Wilson21. Communication Technology Update, Eighth Edition
by August E. Grant, Jennifer H. Meadows22. Extreme Programming and Agile Methods: Xp/Agile Universe 2002: Second Xp Universe and First Agile Universe Conference, Chicago, Il, Usa, August 4-7, 2002: Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2418)
by Laurie Williams, Don Wells, Friedrich Schiller23. Above an Angry Sea: United States B-24 Liberator and PB4Y-2 Privateer Operations in the Pacific (October 1944 to August 1945)
by Alan C. Carey24. Art Forms in Nature
by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel25. Consultations in Feline Internal Medicine
by John R. August26. Fogs in August
by Margaret A. Helms, Nicole Bentley27. True Spirituality
by Francis August Schaeffer28. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
by Jacob August Riis, C. A. Madison29. Conference Interpreting: Current Trends in Research: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interpreting: What Do We Know and How?: (Turku, August 25-27, 1994) (Benjamins Translation Library, Vol 23)
by Daniel (Edt)/ Taylor, Christopher International Conference on Interpreting--What Do We Know and How (199/ Gile30. Strindberg: Five Plays
by August Strindberg, Harry G. CarlsonEtc. Etc. Etc.......
Posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:03:12
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:01:06
I thought it worked, despite the long list of books other than the one I wanted. But it doesn't actually work--I clicked on the link "August" and it links to the disability workbook, not to the Judith Rossner book.
Posted by dreamerz on February 6, 2003, at 23:15:20
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:01:06
> Link to one of about 7717 books at Amazon:Wow!
Posted by Tabitha on February 7, 2003, at 1:47:40
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:01:06
It links to the first one in the list unless you select the "Do Not Link" option.
"August"
Posted by Dr. Bob on February 7, 2003, at 23:17:01
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:01:06
> Yes, "August" by Judith Rossner.
Hmm, let me try this: "August, by Judith Rossner"?
Bob
Posted by Dr. Bob on February 7, 2003, at 23:27:05
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by Dr. Bob on February 7, 2003, at 23:17:01
> > Yes, "August" by Judith Rossner.
>
> Hmm, let me try this: "August, by Judith Rossner"?OK, I didn't see it in the first few matches, and 7717 is a lot to look through, so, since what's in the double double quotes doesn't actually need to be only the title, it can be whatever you want Amazon to search for, you can include the author, too, to narrow down the search, and when I did that, I got just one match. :-)
BTW, Tabitha's right:
> It links to the first one in the list unless you select the "Do Not Link" option.
(or select another one in the list).
Bob
Posted by Jonathan on February 8, 2003, at 0:04:24
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by noa on February 6, 2003, at 22:01:06
In addition to being the title of Judith Rossner's book, "August" seems to be a popular (and somewhat embarrassing) name which some parents bestow upon children born in the month of May ;)
This (or an author whose surname is "August") accounts for most of the 7717 books found, showing that the search-engine looks for the word "August" in the author's/authors' name(s) as well as in the book title. The remainder have titles which include the word "August", like the default choice "Disability Workbook ... Expanded August 2001".
Since the author-name field in Amazon's database is being searched, a simple way to eliminate many of the unwanted hits, while keeping the book we wish to recommend, is to put the author's name in the double double quotes along with the title, like this "August Judith Rossner".
This works: there was only one book for me to choose from — the right one. It's not completely satisfactory, however, because it's not obvious to the reader that the first word inside the double double quotes is the title and the other two are the author's names. Fortunately, the example in Dr Bob's FAQ provides a clue to how we may improve on this.
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faq.html#amazon
Suppose I wish to recommend Dr Bob's book "E-Therapy"; I cannot recall the remaining 11 words of its full title, but I remember the author's surname. If I put double double quotes around "E-Therapy", as in the FAQ, the search-engine will find 1062 books of which the book I wish to link is number 91. Downloading up to 107 pages of links before I find the right book is a very unattractive prospect because I live in a backward region of a backward country where my only choice of internet connection is through a slow, dial-up British Telecom line.
Surely there can't be as many as 1062 books with the word "E-Therapy" in the title; nor are there likely to be many authors named "E-Therapy"! What seems to have happened is that the search engine (or Dr Bob's Perl script) has treated the hyphen "-" as a space separating two words, "E" and "Therapy"; most of the books found have the word "therapy" in their title and an author called "Forename E. Surname", like book number 93 in the FAQ example.
Perhaps all non-alphanumeric characters will be treated in the same way as "-": if I put "E-Therapy (Hsiung)" in double double quotes, perhaps the third word searched for, along with "E" and "Therapy", will be not "(Hsiung)", which is not a plausible author's name, but "Hsiung", which is. Yes, it works: instead of 1062 books, the search-engine found just one — the right one! (A long time ago, Tabßitha and I had a lot of fun with the discovery that Dr Bob's server script ignores non-alphanumeric characters in posting names, too!)
Similarly, "August (Rossner)" makes the search-engine find the book Noa wished to recommend and no other.
Kar deserves most of the credit for discovering this useful 'cyber-hug for the author' format: she nominated "The Hours (Michael Cunningham)" and three other books for the Book Club Book of the Month in http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020616/msgs/830.html .
I merely copied her post without changing the format, inserted the double double quotes, and noticed that it worked. Thanks, Kar. I intended to post this explanation nearly a month ago but have been feeling too miserable recently to post anything; at last I see a tiny glimmer of hope for the future.I don't wish to contradict Dr Bob's advice in http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20020829/msgs/1412.html :
the title alone in double double quotes is nearly always enough to find the required book without too many unwanted hits; and I recommend always trying this first.Judith Rossner's "August", however, is not the only recommendation that has resulted in an unmanageable number of hits — here are a couple more:
"The Source (James Michener)" http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20020829/msgs/1412.html
25139 hits without the author's name."To Life (Kushner)" http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20021001/msgs/1339.html
20859 hits without the author's name.I'm sorry, Noa: Dinah has pushed you down to third place in the competition for the greatest number of Amazon hits :)
Jonathan.
Posted by Jonathan on February 8, 2003, at 0:33:33
In reply to When Amazon's search-engine finds too many books, posted by Jonathan on February 8, 2003, at 0:04:24
> "The Source (James Michener)" http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20021001/msgs/1270.html
> 25139 hits without the author's name.
Posted by Jonathan on February 8, 2003, at 0:39:36
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by Dr. Bob on February 7, 2003, at 23:17:01
Posted by noa on February 8, 2003, at 11:45:05
In reply to Re: Amazon link, posted by Dr. Bob on February 7, 2003, at 23:27:05
Thanks, all!
It appears that both suggestions work
and
Thanks.
This is the end of the thread.
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