particular joy & kindred spirits

i think it a touching of two distant people when i am, say, looking at the next book i want to read on amazon:

MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS (by michael chabon)

and i take a look at the "customers who bought this item also bought" list and find:

BON IVER (bon iver)
HELPLESSNESS BLUES (fleet foxes)
CANON LITHIUM-ION BATTERY
ICE CUBE TRAY

i like knowing that people who read & love the same books i love also love the same music i love, the same photographic hobbies i love, and drinking water with ice in it.  which i, also, happen to love.

so now i have a new technique for finding cool stuff: enter something i think is cool into amazon, then see what other people who bought that thing also bought.

trial run:
holga cameras?  no, too kitschy in a hipster kind of way.  (although i do love pretty much everything hipsters love.)

well how bout a tropical bromeliad garden??

perrrrfect.  alright, here we go:

customers who bought this item also bought:
CERAMIC 1-INCH FLAT IRON
ALLI WEIGHT LOSS AID (CAPSULES)
A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD (JENNIFER EGAN)

yep.  there it is.  i already have the 1-inch flat iron.  taking weight loss pills scares me.  but a visit from the goon squad?  listen, any author who uses both the words "goon" and "squad" in not only the same sentence, but in the TITLE of her book has my attention.  and for that, miss egan, i shall read your book.

oh and just for the record, i base most, nay all, of my book-buying decisions off the aesthetics of the cover.  which is the second reason why i will be adding "goon squad" to my goodreads list.