Extracting notes and highlighting from Kindle books

Question

Is there a way to extract/export my notes and highlighted passages from books on a Kindle or in one of the Kindle reader apps? I primarily use the iOS apps and tend to mark up books heavily as I go, particularly for passages I might later quote in a blog post or tweet. It would be great if I could export all of those highlighted or annotated passages at once.

Answer 1

Yes, this can be done through the Kindle website:

1. Go to https://kindle.amazon.com.
2. At the top of the page click "Your Highlights."
3. You may be asked to login, fill in the login information to the account your kindle is linked.
4. Your highlights and notes should show, you may copy them anywhere you want.

Answer 2

The Clippings.io allows you to extract your kindle notes and highlights and put them into a word, excel, pdf doc - or send them straight to evernote. Also you can search your notes, archive them, share them and tag them!

Answer 3

If you don't use an Amazon account (which i don't since i don't want all my private data uploaded and shared - Amazon records every page you turn...), you can simply use Calibre to download your annotations to your laptop:

Answer 4

Vox recently had a great article on this here http://www.vox.com/2015/6/11/8766159/internet-reading-kindle-instapaper-highlights

and recommended https:///www.clippings.io

Answer 5

If you are a Linux user you can export your notes and highlights by book title using just one command line, like this:

grep -A 3 Wendy My\ Clippings.txt | grep -v Wendy > Abolish\ Silicon\ Valley\ notes.txt

where:

• "Wendy": the keyword to search for (can also be a phrase)
• "My Clippings.txt": the file where kinlde holds all notes and highlights
• "Abolish silicon valley notes.txt": the file where the notes will be stored

For a more thorough explanation of this command line you can read this article: https://www.fossoffice.com/blog/2020/08/15/export-kindle-notes-and-highlights/

(This is a far more privacy-respecting way to deal with notes/highlights, if one can speak of "privacy" when using Kindle...)