Little drags me out of my vivid hallucinations more than being reminded of some jabroni taking time out of their sad little lives to highlight a bit of text they think I just have to check out. One of the reasons I adore reading is because it’s transportive, it can take you to other worlds, all while being a personal and intimate experience. This isn’t all that’s wrong with the Kindle’s Popular Highlights feature - it’s also distracting as all hell. Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a bit. For example, when you’re reading Game of Thrones and your Kindle lets you know you should really pay extra attention to the line that goes: “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” Many of the Popular Highlights displayed are trite, the literary version of Live Laugh Love.

An example, for your friends, of what Popular Highlights looks like on the Amazon Kindle. And when enough people highlight that bit of text in a book, your Kindle decides it’s time to let you know.

The idea is to crowdsource the most impactful and interesting sentences and paragraphs.

Kindle book notes and highlights