How I Take Notes in Kindle Books

Today we’re going to look at how I mark up Kindle books so that I can transfer their contents into Obsidian.

While I most often read physical books, sometimes it’s much easier to grab my Kindle. Take my recent vacation. I did bring 2 books with me, but it was far easier to lay on the beach and read and make notes on my Kindle than it would be to bring down a book, some sticky notes and sticky tabs and a pencil. To read a physical book I’d have to juggle those stationary items, plus my phone for times I wanted to add a note to my Obsidian database.

Once I’m done with a Kindle book I email myself the notes from my Kindle then send the resulting PDF to DEVONthink. From there I use work through notes as you see in the video to get them into Obsidian. Sometimes this is done in Obsidian directly on macOS, and sometimes I use 1Writer from my iPad.

My Kindle Markup Style

• ;;purpose - I use this to reference passages that state the purpose of the book
• ;;structure - This is used when the author describes the structure of the book
• ;;tag - I use this to note anything I want to tag in my notes
• ;;book - This is for any books that are referenced