Guardian: I’m hooked on ebook highlighting – what we underline is so revealing

[ctg]

It’s an odd sensation to be reading an ebook and to suddenly notice that – thanks to the provider’s data-tracking software – you’re on a passage that other people have already highlighted. I had it recently, reading David Nicholls’s Us, where readers have been quick to wield their virtual pens.

“I had always been led to believe that ageing was a slow and gradual process, the creep of a glacier. Now I realise that it happens in a rush, like snow falling off a roof,” writes Nicholls, in a passage picked out by 18 previous – gently ageing? – readers. Twenty seven, meanwhile, in long-term relationships of their own perhaps, went for “of course, after nearly a quarter of a century, the questions about our distant pasts have all been posed and we’re left with ‘how was your day?’ and ‘when will you be home?’ and ‘have you put the bins out?’”

I don’t tend to highlight my books when I’m reading for fun, in print or digital. If I’m enjoying a book, I’m usually too engrossed to stop; if I’m not, why would I want to remind myself of it later? I do, though, find myself strangely fascinated by the passages that catch people’s attention. Not least those revealed in new data from Amazon, released to The Atlantic , which notes that “It takes more than 4,000 highlights to make something the most popular passage in Pride and Prejudice, but only about 650 for something to be the most popular highlight in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

http://www.theguardian.com/books/bo...k-highlighting-what-we-underline-is-revealing

She's not alone as I did exactly the same thing when I started reading e-books. And what people highlights are really interesting passages. I recommend reading the article instead just relying on above quote.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'd switch that feature off. (I do have it disabled!)
I have no wish to share what I highlight, nor see the random people I don't know. A step too stupid in Social Media. I'd ONLY be interested in swapping highlights with an interested friend.

 

[tinkerdan]

I use highlighting for later review. Things that stop my flow of reading always get marked because...well I stopped and -> this is why.
Also I sometimes mark where various characters show up and even highlight character development events.
If I don't highlight it might mean few if any Grammar problems; but it also might mean nothing of interest, though if I was rushing through it... it means it really had my attention.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I have yet to highlight anything except when I am editing, or when going through my own old books to remind myself what I said before, before I go on to write the next one (useful, since I discovered I forgot some very important things, which called for a lot of highlighting).

Interestingly, when reading for pleasure I do like to copy down prose that I find particularly beautiful, inspiring, or satisfying, so that I can come back and look at it later. So highlighting would be useful, and if I did highlight that's what it would be. But to date I've been turning to physical books for my favorite authors, the ones whose words most often move me. Maybe it's the sense of permanency with physical books. Ebooks just seem so ephemeral, even though people tell me that I'll never lose them because there is the Cloud, I just don't feel that they're as real.

 

[Lilmizflashythang]

Agreed, Teresa. This is why I keep the physical copies. I just don't trust the electronic media revolution.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'll never lose them because there is the Cloud

No, Don't trust Cloud. I save copies. Also your highlighting and notes is in a separate file you are seriously advised to save. It's just text, simple to copy via USB and edit in anything ...

Any particular piece of cloud is 100x or more likely to go off line, be closed, erased, hacked or otherwise messed up than your own house! Google, MS and Amazon have had more downtime in last year than my own hosting and than my own servers at home since 1995!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

How would I save them?

 

[tinkerdan]

One of the easiest ways to (save)back up the books is to use Kindle PC; but I have done that from the start and it would be difficult now to try to play catch-up unless there's a way to make kindle download all the books at once while you go off and read something on the real kindle. It doesn't put the book or notes onto the PC until you open the book.

Be mindful that if a catastrophe happens in the cloud it is likely to ripple through when you connect; because your devices sync with the cloud and if a book is missing from cloud it is assumed deleted and will be removed from the device. So you might want to create a directory that contains a backup of your library on the PC and is isolated from the clouds invasive grasp. I'm not sure if there is a way to protect the kindle from such an event. I do know of kindle users complaining that the cloud and their books on kindle were all mysteriously deleted.

As for the safety of the cloud information; I think Joni Mitchell said it best 'I really don't know clouds at all.'