That seems like fair compensation for assembling a list of books that, I may be interested in reading. Do you actually find this objectionable?

The only time there's really a valid reason to complain about affiliate links is if you're rewriting links posted by others; and even then IMHO disclosure is enough to clear you. Otherwise, affiliate links are serving their purpose properly (encouraging bloggers to post links to Amazon; and Amazon compensating the bloggers for the referral).

It's just honest to state that they are affiliate links, regardless of he deserves the revenue or not.

looks like he jumps at any opportunity to get his amazon affiliate link out there. even posting it with a pretty much useless comment on this g+ post:

https://plus.google.com/112493031290529814667/posts/LvhVwngP...

(this link is from a story that just recently made the frontpage on hacker news)

Eric, how's the affiliate marketing going?

I would find a follow-up post discussing the numbers re: Amazon Affiliate click-through and purchase rates from a story hitting the front page of HN more interesting than yet another "here is a list of books that you should read" post, or is that a little too meta?