Question for Kindle Users: Highlighting & Underlining

[Dave]

I saw an interesting article about Things People Highlight and it started me thinking about that feature. Personally, I find it distracting to see things other folks have highlighted underlined in a book I'm reading, and I don't see a use for it myself, so I turned it off on my Kindle. However, it was somewhat interesting to see the data this reveals. It looks as though those who highlight tend to do it most for certain books and also many highlight the very same thing.

Why do they do that I wonder? If someone else has highlighted text, it will be indicated, why climb on board? Also, why so very few outliers?

[Kathy]

One reason to highlight it for yourself is the ability to turn off the highlights of others. That way you don't lose your own choices. I find it interesting to see where I agree with other people's choices. Of course there are other highlights where I wonder why anyone would.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*]

I don't highlight in my kindle. It makes sense for some people to use but I wouldn't find it useful. I'm strange but I can't study electronically anyway as well. In college, we were forced to get an ebook version for a course and I kept skimming it on the computer, but can absorb the textbook better for the humanities course. I highlight like crazy in educational books, seems to help with learning for me.


If I planned to sell them or something, I would avoid all the highlighting.

[Fictionophile]

I review novels on a regular basis. I find highlighting salient passages very helpful when writing my reviews.
I read solely on my Kindle Paperwhite now.
Don't know how I managed before...

[Janet]

Erin (Paperback stash) *is juggle-reading* wrote: "I don't highlight in my kindle. It makes sense for some people to use but I wouldn't find it useful. I'm strange but I can't study electronically anyway as well. In college, we were forced to get a..."

I don't have an ereader. I have never underlined, never highlighted or written anything on a book other than my name on the inside front page.

[Marion]

For some reason I don't read on my Kindle. I prefer real books.

[F.]

altho this thread is nearly dead, i'm an avid highlighter. i do it for multiple reasons, e.g., bobby adair, in his excellent apocalyptic series, wrote: "I wouldn’t call them friends. They’re circumstantial companions." his words exactly expressed an idea i was thinking about. in his book murder on the mind, bartlett wrote: "It’s like the inside of my brain itches and I can’t scratch it," which was an instance of beautiful thinking/writing that i wanted to re-experience.
in phobic (the forbidden doors book 1), pearson wrote: "His lips leave echoes on mine." this is just one of the dozens of beautifully expressed ideas i highlighted in her book.
so. i highlight mostly when i read compelling ideas i want to reconsider without having to re-read a whole book, and when i read gorgeous wish-i'd-written-that quotables.
i find much of what others highlight to be daft, but i've noted that some readers highlight character introductions, which means the reader can skip back to that character's micro-bio later in the book. seems reasonable, altho kindle's x-ray feature may inter that functionality.

[Stephanie]

I highlight for myself. I don't turn on the highlighting made by others. Most of my highlights are well-said lines or funny things.

[Marie]

I don't highlight on my kindle as I see no reason to do it in fiction books. If I was reading something like a biography or something like that and I wanted to remember a quote then I might use the highlight.