I read on my Kindle. A lot. When I read, I highlight, make notes, and bookmark pages like crazy. One problem I kept running into was forgetting where I read something. Because the Kindle doesn’t have a simple way to simultaneously search through all my notes and highlights from every book, finding a specific note or highlight is tricky. I’ve spent quite a bit of time opening books, searching for a specific highlight, not finding what I was looking for, and repeating the process.
I put an end to endless searches when I began clipping my Kindle notes to Evernote. Now, when I search for a note or highlight, Evernote searches through all of the book notes I’ve added and I’m able to quickly find what I’m looking for. No more guessing who said what in what book.
Here is how I add my Kindle notes and highlights to Evernote.
1. Log into your unique Amazon Kindle page to view your books.
2. Select a particular book and use the Evernote WebClipper to add your notes and highlights to Evernote.
3. Edit the new Evernote note to take out the “extra” things (web version shown below)
4. Delete text (like “Add a note”) if you’d like (desktop version shown below)
Now you’re finished!
If you have highlights from several books, in addition to having a specific notebook for your book notes, you may want to consider keeping a single note with a list of all your books. Copy and paste the note link from each book into one note. Doing so allows you to find specific books quickly (even faster than searching titles).
Clipping Kindle notes and highlights is perfect for students who use digital textbooks. For more great student Evernote ideas, be sure to download the free ebook 19 Practical Evernote Ideas for Students.
Evernote Student 
I just read the post on Michael Hyatt’s blog about retaining info you read and my first question was, what about ebooks. I’m so happy I saw your blog post in the comments because this is a fantastic idea! I love Evernote so the ability to be able to search my book notes would be awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Glad I could help!
Thanks for this post Jordan. Excellent ideas!
Both this and the Hyatt post are so timely. I burn through books and have to develop a strategy for keeping track of the info.
I’ll give this a try now!
Glad to help, Chris. Have fun!
You have some really good books there in your 2012 list – I will use it to enhance my “reading wishlist”. Thanks!
I had the same goal. However, I wanted each note in kindle as a separate note in Evernote. I found a program online (Klippings, not to be confused with Klippings Kollector) that did almost everything I needed but had tons of bugs and needed some extra features. Fortunately, the code was open source so I was able to make some singificant upgrades and have packaged it into a Windows installer (OSX and Linux not yet available).
You can read the thread here:
http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/32770-kindle-my-clippings-to-evernote-solved/
Thanks for the suggestion!
It might just be me but it seems that trick doesn’t work any more. Afer clicking “my books” and clicking one book in particular, the highlights displayed are only the popular ones. To display our notes one needs to click on “view your notes and highlights” which open a pop up windows which does not display all the notes (looks like the java link is brokent). I have tried 2 different computers. Is it just me? Help please!
Unfortunately, it’s not just you. I emailed Amazon regarding the new change, and they did make a minor adjustment, but it’s not ideal. To get the same Evernote end-result, I highlight the book cover, title, and author part of the Kindle note and “clip the selection.” I then copy and paste my personal notes and highlights into the Evernote note. Definitely not as efficient, but it still works. Good luck!
http://www.clippingsconverter,com is an online solution to allow you to take your ‘My clippings.txt” file and upload it to evernote. It’s been running for three years now and is extremely stable and appears to be an easier approach to importing your clippings. I am biased though as I run the site.
Jim, thanks for the suggestion (biased or not). I’ll definitely look into it!
Hi Jordan, Thanks for sharing this information about the search options for highlights using Kindle. There’s an iOS app being released in November of 2013, http://www.Snippefy.com. The app lets users read and share their Kindle highlights and notes, all in one place. This is definitely going to be a useful tool when using the Kindle, so check it out. I though you may want to have a heads up on the idea. Thanks Nathan