Kindle.Amazon.com

One of the things I like to do while reading a book is mark it up. And I think this is much more satisfying in the digital age. In 12th grade we were directed to "annotate" our books to search for motifs, themes, and anything you could insert into a discussion to make you sound clever. In an actual book, there are drawbacks: flipping through the pages to get back to the annotation can be tiresome, what if your pen or highlighter craps out in the middle of it, or what if, when you're done, you want to lend your book to someone who hasn't read it?

This is one of the main reasons I really like ebooks. I can highlight and/or make notes in passages and then read all of them on a single page. I can change my mind and delete or change them as I get further into the book. I can easily reference what I've highlighted so I can remind myself of foreshadowing or world information. And this ties into why I prefer Kindle books: go to Kindle.Amazon.com and you'll see all of the highlights and notes you've made in your Kindle books and, from there, you can publish them. So while there are others, like Moon+ Reader, Kindle is the only one I know of that allows you to publish your annotations.

As a user, you can choose to make a book that you've read, are reading, or are considering reading public or private. You can also decide to make notes and highlights in any of those books public or private. Currently, all books are marked private by default so you have to mark them as public if you want other users to see your activity. Personally I think it should be the other way around or the user should define the default. For me, I mainly use it to access what I've highlighted or noted to write my reviews.

The social aspect of this site is that you can view the notes and highlights of other users. The Shared Notes & Highlights section shows what has been marked "public" by the user. As I mentioned, by default highlights and notes are private, so sometimes there aren't that many. Highlights from books you've read or books you want to read will show up in the Daily Review (which I think is misnamed since it is a Daily Highlight).

If you read a lot of Kindle books, you should definitely check this out!

Kindle Unlimited

Have you heard about Amazon's new service: kindleunlimited? Of course you have. It currently offers access to 700,000 books (500 of which are public domain) and 2,000 audiobooks for $9.99/month. It also provides a complimentary 3-month Audible membership (existing members get 3 credits).

Reviews of this service generally don't talk about if it's a good idea and instead ask: is it worth the cost? Jeff Jones wrote this great review that, in my opinion, answers that question. He discusses the three factors to determine if "Netflix for books" is right for you. Per month, (1) how many books do you read? (2) how much do you spend on books? and (3) are books you want included?

All of the reviews I have posted to this blog, with the exception of Double Life, I read with the 30-day free trial Amazon is offering. That gives us 6 books (two 1-stars, three 3-stars, and one 4-star). For the moment, as I shift my reviewing focus, I am not going to continue my subscription. In the future if I continue to read 6 or more books a month, I think $9.99 will be money well-spent. But for the average consumer, as Jeff Jones indicates in his review, it is not yet worth it.