How Amazon.com almost ruined Christmas
Joe, who recently burst upon the blogosphere, talks about how Amazon almost ruined Christmas, though oddly he doesn’t actually tell the story.
A few days ago Joe hinted that he bought me a Christmas present by saying, ‘I bought you a Christmas present.’ This made me think of a few things in rapid succession:
- How nice!
- Crap.
- Now I have to get him a present.
- Ah, I was going to anyway, but now I actually have to make sure I do it.
I wasn’t sure what to get him, but since he likes to read and I like to give books to people the choice was obvious. But what book?
Ah!
Has he read it though? It is a SciFi classic, and Joe is a pretty big geek. I IMed him and worked the word ‘grok’ into the conversation to see if he knew what I was talking about. He didn’t, and I was set.
I went to Amazon, ordered the book, got it gift wrapped, and waited 2 days. The box arrived and I called Joe over to my desk. He unwrapped the book, and looked at it with a slightly quizzical look on his face.
‘Oh,’ said he.
Hmm, thought I, Joe likes SciFi, right?
Turns out Amazon sent me the wrong book. Instead of some Heinlein goodness Joe was greeted with ‘Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives,’ which proudly proclaims on the cover to have the power to change people’s lives. No wonder he wasn’t as thrilled as I thought he should have been.
2 days later and Stranger in a Strangeland arrived. Christmas was saved.
