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

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

Generally, you go weeks (or months… and even years) with out ending a e-book, and if you lastly decide it again up, you are fully misplaced. You flip open to a chapter stuffed with characters you barely keep in mind. Are they brothers, or simply greatest pals? Who’s that aspect character, and the place did she come from?

Or possibly you are totally immersed within the sequence, however there are simply so many characters that maintaining observe feels unattainable. Sticky notes between pages might help, however in the event you’re studying on a Kindle or different e-reader, you may’t precisely wedge Submit-its between digital pages. Luckily, there is a good characteristic that handles all of that for you — maintaining 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 device constructed proper into your Kindle. It helps you to faucet on the title of a personality or place and immediately get contextual data on them. It even works with obscurer phrases particular to that e-book.

Generally, 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, equivalent to on airplane mode or out and about with out Wi-Fi. The data is saved inside 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 means of Amazon Direct Publishing.

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

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

Methods to entry an e-book’s X-Ray

It is just a little hidden

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

1. Begin inside the e-book you are at the moment studying. Faucet the prime of the web page to tug 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 prime. For instance: Notable clips, Folks, Phrases, and Photographs populated for the prequel to Throne of Glass, referred to as Murderer’s Blade, by Sarah J Maas. This explicit e-book is principally a group of tales in numerous locations, so it appears like there are dozens of characters to maintain observe of always, so I believed it good to make use of it to showcase the X-Ray characteristic.

The Notable clips part consists of precisely that — X-Ray pulls numerous sentences and paragraphs from throughout the e-book which can be vital to the story or most important characters themselves. You should use the tiny arrows on the left and proper sides of the display to toggle by means 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 title.

Underneath Folks, you may first see the point out of characters in your present web page. Then, you may scroll right 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 instances. Once I clicked her title, I acquired entry to tabs that confirmed me her particular person notable clips, in addition to all mentions of her title basically. For a most important character, this might not be as useful. Nonetheless, for a personality talked about solely a couple of times firstly who makes a shock look on the finish, this characteristic is extremely helpful.

Phrases is extra hit-or-miss, however for sequence that characteristic completely different varieties of individuals and/or magic methods, just like the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo, it is further helpful. Lastly, Photographs 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 encompasses a map firstly or finish, X-Ray is a good way to rapidly reference it in the event you’re making an attempt to get a lay of the land — it undoubtedly helped me once I tried to know the logistics of Sam and Frodo’s journey to Mordor.