Elf suggests *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* on #emacs, ISBN: 1853264997. When I looked at it on Amazon, they suggested *Seven Pillars of Wisdom*, ISBN: 1853264695. This is the first time the suggestion actually interests me. I think I will order both. Well and with that I started on a shopping spree: *Sternstunden der Menschheit: Zwölf historische Miniaturen* von Stefan Zweig, ISBN: 3596205956, and the three volumes of *Byzantium* by John Julius Norwich, ISBN: 0140114475, ISBN: 0140114483, and ISBN: 0140114491. And then I bought two books by Chrisopher Alexander, *The Timeless Way of Building* and *A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction*, ISBN: 0195024028 and ISBN: 0195019199.
Total cost: EUR 168.04. *sniff*
Something for later: *Byzantinische Geschichte 324-1453* von Georg Ostrogorsky, ISBN: 340639759X.
Actually I came home later tonight and wanted to use a gift certificate Amazon had given me. It turns out that I can’t use gift certificates when changing an order. How annoying. So I *cancel* the order, and order all the books again (takes about ten or twenty clicks, no big deal). And then I remember that *other* gift certificate I have for a Swiss bookshop – CHF 200 for the *Buchhandlung zum Elsässer*. I will try to order the two Christopher Alexander books from this bookshop.
Later: They have no website. What a mess. I’ll try to remember and call them on Monday.
Anyway, I still think Amazon lost a book order of about EUR 100. (Aside: The Alexander books are too expensive!)