digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Export your Kindle ebook highlights into a digital notes app like Evernote so they become editable, annotatable, and searchable, using either the free Bookcision bookmarklet or the paid Readwise service that syncs highlights automatically. Wait until you've finished the whole book, then export everything in one step so you aren't switching between apps while reading.
Key Points
- Highlights left in an e-reader can't be edited, annotated, or further summarized, which is why exporting them matters.
- The free option uses Bookcision, which requires extra manual steps such as cleaning up formatting after pasting.
- The paid option, Readwise, automatically detects new Kindle highlights and syncs them to Evernote in the background without manual involvement.
- Readwise also keeps tracking a book's notes even if you later move the note to another notebook or change its title, because it uses the note's unique ID.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Free method: Go to Bookcision (search "Bookcision" and open the first result). Show the bookmarks bar (on Chrome: View > Always Show Bookmarks Bar), then drag the Bookcision button from the page onto that bar.
- Log in to read.amazon.com, which lists all Kindle books you purchased, and open the book whose highlights you want.
- Click the Bookcision bookmark. It takes a minute to load, then shows your highlights with their locations in a cleaner overlay.
- Avoid "Copy to Clipboard," which requires Flash Player; the speaker prefers not to install it. Instead use Download and choose plain text, which he found cleanest.
- Paste into your notes app (he used Evernote: My Inbox > New Note), then optionally click Format > Simplify Formatting in Evernote and fix remaining spacing and formatting by hand. Add the title and author to the note.
- Paid method: Sign up for Readwise at readwise.io and connect your Kindle highlights; it syncs continuously and exports to Evernote automatically.
- The speaker's exported book note was about 9,000 words, which he says will be useful for later summarizing steps.
- Readwise costs somewhere between five and ten dollars a month, according to the speaker, and he says the syncing feature alone justifies that cost.
- Readwise also offers popular highlights from other users, tags, favorites, sharing, flashcard review, and export to some apps, though the speaker focuses on syncing.
Bottom Line
Free exporting via Bookcision works but takes manual cleanup, while Readwise removes that work for a monthly fee; either way, moving highlights into a searchable notes app is what makes them useful.
