Thursday, August 30, 2007

Amazon.com's "Grownup School" Expert Guides

When people do something that's basically a waste of time, they often characterize it as "a labor of love." These feeds are like that. But it's a sick twisted co-dependent love I must say.

These resyndications of Amazon.com's "Grownup School" -- a series of "So You'd Like to ..." guides by recognized experts in their respective fields are not covered by Amazon Web Services. They have to be screen-scraped. That's not so bad, but Amazon is constantly twiddling with the presentation elements of the source pages, which makes these feeds very fragile (i.e. they're "broken" far too often.)

Since they aren't even "real" feeds in the sense that the content seldom changes (Feed aficionados like the term "evergreen" for static feeds.) you might wonder why I bother. I guess I learn a lot about Amazon's page construction and screen-scraping generally but one of these days I may just let these go to seed.

So You'd Like to...
    

  1. "Read Anne Easter Smith's 10 Books on 15th-Century England"
    2. 

  2. "See Andrew Weil's 10 Books to Read on Science"
    3. 

  3. "See Audrey Niffenegger's 10 Illustrated Books to Read"
    4. 

  4. "See Ben Mezrich's 10 Books to Read on Las Vegas" 
    5. 

  5. "See Bruce Feiler's 10 Books to Read on Religion"
    6. 

  6. "See Charles Peters's 10 Books to Read on Washington, D.C."
    7. 

  7. "See Dane Howard's 10 Books to Read on Digital Photography" 
    8. 

  8. "See Daniel Levitin's 11 Books to Read on Music"
    9. 

  9. "See Dava Sobel's 10 Books to Read on the Planets"
    10. 

  10. "See David Suzuki's 10 Books to Read on the Environment" 
    11. 

  11. "See Donald Trump's 10 Books to Read on Entrepreneurship" 
    12. 

  12. "See Douglas Brinkley's 10 Books to Read on New Orleans" 
    13. 

  13. "See Frank Vincent's Top 10 Necessities for a Man's Man" 
    14. 

  14. "See Geoff Dyer's 10 Books to Read on Photography" 
    15. 

  15. "See Greil Marcus's 10 Books to Read by Philip Roth"
    16. 

  16. "See Haynes Johnson's 10 Books on History and Politics"
    17. 

  17. "See Ian Bremmer's 10 Books to Read on International Politics"
    18. 

  18. "See James Atlas's 10 Biographies to Read" 
    19. 

  19. "See John Berendt's 10 Books to Read on Venice" 
    20. 

  20. "See John Crawford's 10 Books to Read on War Literature"
    21. 

  21. "See John Dean's Books to Read on the American Presidency"
    22. 

  22. "See John Hope Franklin's Top 10 on African American History" 
    23. 

  23. "See Kathy Gannon's 10 Books to Read on Afghanistan"
    24. 

  24. "See Lisa Randall's 10 Books to Read on Physics"
    25. 

  25. "See Lynn Freed's 10 Books to Read on the Writing Life"
    26. 

  26. "See Marion Nestle's 10 Books to Read on Food"
    27. 

  27. "See Martin Gilbert's 10 Books to Read on Winston Churchill"
    28. 

  28. "See Martin Meredith's 10 Books to Read on Africa" 
    29. 

  29. "See MaryJanice Davidson's 10 Funny Vampire Books to Read"
    30. 

  30. "See Matt Weiland's 10 Books to Read on Soccer"
    31. 

  31. "See Nate Blakeslee's Top 10 on Investigative Journalism"
    32. 

  32. "See Paul Berman's 10 Books to Read on the American Left"
    33. 

  33. "See Peter Beinart's 10 Books to Read on Liberalism" 
    34. 

  34. "See Robert Wilson's 10 Books to Read on Spain and Portugal"
    35. 

  35. "See Roy Finamore's 10 Cookbooks to Read" 
    36. 

  36. "See Sarah Waters's 10 Favorites in Fiction" 
    37. 

  37. "See Scott Turow's 10 Books to Read on the Law" 
    38. 

  38. "See Simon Callow's 10 Film Biographies to Read"
    39. 

  39. "See Stanley Bing's 10 Books to Read on Business"
    40. 

  40. "See Thomas Ricks's 10 Non-Iraq Books for Understanding Iraq"
    41. 

  41. "See Tony Judt's 10 Books to Read on 20th Century Europe"
    42. 

  42. "See Vali Nasr's 10 Books to Read on Iran"
    43.
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