Amazon are morons ...

[WhiteCrow]

I've been reading a book on Martian geology this weekend, and I quite fancied something similar on the Moon.

So off I trot to use the Amazon search engine. The keyworld "Moon" brings too much, so I use the category, "Science & Nature Astronomy & Cosmology".

And what do I get?

• The Key of Life: Astrology of the Lunar Nodes by Prash Trivedi
• Moon Lore by Timothy Harley
• Moon Magic: Myth and Magic, Crafts and Recipes, Rituals and Spells (Llewellyn's Practical Magick) by David Conway
• The Moon and Everyday Living: Use Lunar Energies to Transform Your Life by Daniel Pharr
• The Moon and How to Observe It: An Advanced Handbook for Students of the Moon in the 21st Century (Astronomer's Observing Guides) by Peter Grego

Perhaps I should complain about the last one, you know a genuine science book listed under science?

It's a big issue for me, I have a degree in Physics and Astronomy. For a lot of very thicky people that means I can do Horoscopes. Astronomy is a science, Astrology is something else. I really would have hoped an organisation like Amazon would get it right.

I know we have a few librarians on here, and feel tempted to sneak in and find out how close they put the Astrology books to the Astronomy ones. If they're mixed in, prepare for a world of grief! [And don't give me "a punter/customer must have put that there"]

[Captain Tancredi]

Haven't tried it recently, but something similar happened to me a couple of years ago when I was after a book about the Maya- all it could offer me was a lot of Celestine Prophecy-type stuff rather than the actual historical civilisation.

[Lissa]

I just did the same search - "Books "moon" Science & Nature Astronomy & Cosmology" and the results I got were

1. The Man Who Ran the Moon: James Webb, JFK and the Secret History of Project Apollo by Piers Bizony
2. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
3. Apollo 13: Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
4. The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan
5. Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing Hoax (Bad Science) by Philip C. Plait
6. Full Moon by Michael Light
7. How to Photograph the Moon and Planets with Your Digital Camera (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy) by Tony Buick
8. In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969 (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight) by Walter R. Cunningham, Colin Burgess, and Francis French
9. Apollo: An Eyewitness Account by Alan Bean, Andrew Chaikin, and John (Int) Glenn
10. Patrick Moore on the Moon by Sir Patrick Moore

There was only 1 new age book in the top 30. Amazon searches are a lot less reliable than they were before they started using the A9 search engine but even A9 isn't as bad as you're making out.

[Stuart Wallis]

I know we have a few librarians on here, and feel tempted to sneak in and find out how close they put the Astrology books to the Astronomy ones. If they're mixed in, prepare for a world of grief! [And don't give me "a punter/customer must have put that there"]

We may be dim... I tend to send the more spurious astrology titles in the general direction of romantic fiction.

[WhiteCrow]

I just did the same search - "Books › "moon" › Science & Nature › Astronomy & Cosmology" and ...

There was only 1 new age book in the top 30. Amazon searches are a lot less reliable than they were before they started using the A9 search engine but even A9 isn't as bad as you're making out.

All the titles I posted were from page one of my search. I did write Amazon a scathing complaint about it though. Hence why I was so annoyed.

We may be dim... I tend to send the more spurious astrology titles in the general direction of romantic fiction.

I like.

[Larry]

problem with most internet re-tailers like Amazon, you really need to know the author of the book you are looking for to slim down your search other wise you get pages and pages of utter rubbish that only connection is because they have the samee word in the title.