X-Ray is your Kindle’s best-kept secret

As soon as a bookworm, all the time a bookworm. In the event you’re the identical, then you recognize the ache of selecting between rereading an previous favourite novel, beginning a brand new collection, or going to the bookstore to stack one other title atop the TBR pile. At one level or one other, you have certainly picked up a couple of story at a time and tried to do a tandem read, which will get complicated quick when you’re mixing up one fantasy world with one other. Iron would possibly kill fairies in Terrasen, however it does not do squat in Prythian.

Typically, you go weeks (or months… and even years) with out ending a e book, and while you lastly choose it again up, you are utterly misplaced. You flip open to a chapter stuffed with characters you barely keep in mind. Are they brothers, or simply finest mates? Who’s that facet character, and the place did she come from?

Or perhaps you are totally immersed within the collection, however there are simply so many characters that holding monitor feels unattainable. Sticky notes between pages may also help, however when you’re studying on a Kindle or different e-reader, you may’t precisely wedge Submit-its between digital pages. Happily, there is a sensible characteristic that handles all of that for you — holding characters organized and simple to reference: X-Ray.

What’s X-Ray on Kindle e-readers?

Seeing between the strains

X-Ray is a reference software constructed proper into your Kindle. It helps you to faucet on the identify of a personality or place and immediately get contextual data on them. It even works with obscurer phrases particular to that e book.

Typically, relying on the e book, there’ll even be hyperlinks to Goodreads, Wikipedia, or one other exterior supply that may present extra of an index on whichever time period you select. Nonetheless, some customers point out that some books’ X-Ray characteristic have subsequent to no data whereas others function a whole index in and of itself.

As for the non-hyperlinked sources, you may even entry them with out an web connection, resembling on airplane mode or out and about with out Wi-Fi. The data is saved throughout the e-book itself, and authors may even go in and add, edit, or just allow X-Ray entries for his or her Kindle e-books by way of Amazon Direct Publishing.

Among the issues a e book’s X-Ray will present embrace:

• Biographies
• Associated passages
• Further context
• Notes that the writer added themselves

Methods to entry an e-book’s X-Ray

It is a bit hidden

Similar to most of Kindle’s settings and options, X-Ray is straightforward to make use of and comparatively intuitive to search out. Nonetheless, in contrast to altering the font dimension and margin sizes, X-Ray is in a unique menu. Here is learn how to discover it:

1. Begin throughout the e book you are at the moment studying. Faucet the high of the web page to drag up the highest menu.
2. Faucet the stop-light menu within the higher right-hand nook.
3. Faucet X-Ray.

Relying in your e book, sure tabs will seem on the high. For instance: Notable clips, Folks, Phrases, and Photos populated for the prequel to Throne of Glass, referred to as Murderer’s Blade, by Sarah J Maas. This explicit e book is mainly a group of tales in numerous locations, so it looks like there are dozens of characters to maintain monitor of always, so I assumed it good to make use of it to showcase the X-Ray characteristic.

The Notable clips part contains precisely that — X-Ray pulls numerous sentences and paragraphs from throughout the e book which might be essential to the story or important characters themselves. You need to use the tiny arrows on the left and proper sides of the display to toggle by way of them, and above the quote itself, there’s a progress bar that tells you the situation of every of the quotes, in addition to the chapter or part identify.

Underneath Folks, you may first see the point out of characters in your present web page. Then, you may scroll all the way down to see different characters within the e book, in addition to every of their mentions. The principle character of Murderer’s Blade, Celaena Sardothien, was talked about 1,081 occasions. After I clicked her identify, I received entry to tabs that confirmed me her particular person notable clips, in addition to all mentions of her identify generally. For a important character, this is probably not as useful. Nonetheless, for a personality talked about solely a few times at first who makes a shock look on the finish, this characteristic is extremely helpful.

Phrases is extra hit-or-miss, however for collection that characteristic totally different varieties of individuals and/or magic techniques, just like the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo, it is further useful. Lastly, Photos is one other part that may both be useful or not — some books solely have a picture for the quilt of the e book itself. Nonetheless, in case your e book includes a map at first or finish, X-Ray is a good way to rapidly reference it when you’re making an attempt to get a lay of the land — it undoubtedly helped me after I tried to know the logistics of Sam and Frodo’s journey to Mordor.