Internet searches

This is an example of the kind of thing that AI can be great at helping with.

In this case, you could simply ask it “Please find non-fiction, history books for adults on the subject of Cleopatra and add a link to them in Amazon or other UK online shops”.

After thinking for a while, it will provide you with information including a shortlist of books, some information about them, and links to buy them.

Here are some places you can try that:

https://chatgpt.com

https://claude.com (requires registration)

https://gemini.google.com/app

https://grok.com

This is how I use things like amazon now too, I do a search elsewhere trying to find a trustworthy source for recommendation, then if I want to buy it, I might search amazon for that item, though I try to shop around, sometimes paying a little more to spead the economy around so it isn't just one shop getting my business.

Amazon originally was an online book shop, but now it's like a market where sellers pay amazon to hawk their wares to you, even if it's not want you want. I don't even think customers are their main business model anymore, it's a storefront that other people sell from, rather then a traditional shop. 

Amazon is exasperating. The thing that frustrates me most is the way they categorise genres, eg., ‘Literary Fiction’. That can include ‘cookery’ or  ‘interior design’ for instance.

If I search for a hardback or paperback book, the search switches to all kindle books at some point, along with sponsored content relating to nothing I am looking for. This can make the search needlessly time consuming as not every book is published in kindle. Amazon deliberately makes a search more time consuming than it needs to be.

If I want to find a book about ‘Minoan culture’ for instance, I have found it more useful to do an online search using terms such as ‘Minoan Culture’, ‘Minoan Civilisation’, ‘Minoan Religion’ etc. This usually gets good results and when I input the identified title and author on the Amazon website, low and behold they may stock it, even though they mightn’t have shown the book when initially searching their website.

Searches work by key words. Cleopatra is commonly done in schools so it is probably more common for people to be searching for books for children than adults. It tries to please you by finding what it thinks is more likely wanted. Obviously it failed in your case.

Try simply adding the word adults to your search. With this key word added in you will hopefully see more of what you are after. You don't need to type sentences into search boxes. Just Cleopatra history adults should do.

I expect the last one is not for children!

I've just searched amazon for 

TheCatWoman said:

history books on Cleopatra

and yes quite a few are for children.

I don't know a way to exclude children's books from the research otherwise I would have liked to suggest it to help.

I think that it might be a good thing that history is so easily accessible to children these days.  Since "horrible histories" things have changed a bit in that area perhaps. 

I came a cross a couple of podcasts on the BBC which are Cleopatra themed recently - one by one of the people behind "horrible histories"  You're Dead to Me - Cleopatra - BBC Sounds  qhich mixes facts with humor and a more serious   Short History Of... - Cleopatra - BBC Sounds.

I enjoyed listening to them both.

Also I just noticed a more salacious spin on Cleopatra's history in Betwixt The Sheets - Royal Sex: Cleopatra - BBC Sounds

Best Wishes