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

As soon as a bookworm, all the time a bookworm. In case you’re the identical, then you understand the ache of selecting between rereading an outdated favourite novel, beginning a brand new sequence, or going to the bookstore to stack one other title atop the TBR pile.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 have absolutely picked up multiple story at a time and tried to do a tandem read, which will get complicated quick if you happen to’re mixing up one fantasy world with one other. Iron would possibly kill fairies in Terrasen, but it surely would not do squat in Prythian.

Typically, you go weeks (or months… and even years) with out ending a e book, and whenever you lastly decide 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 aspect character, and the place did she come from?

Or perhaps you are totally immersed within the sequence, however there are simply so many characters that preserving monitor feels inconceivable. Sticky notes between pages will help, however if you happen to’re studying on a Kindle or different e-reader, you’ll be able to’t precisely wedge Publish-its between digital pages. Thankfully, there is a good function that handles all of that for you — preserving characters organized and straightforward to reference: X-Ray.

What’s X-Ray on Kindle e-readers?

Seeing between the traces

X-Ray is a reference instrument constructed proper into your Kindle. It helps you to faucet on the title of a personality or place and immediately get contextual info 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. Nevertheless, some customers point out that some books’ X-Ray function have subsequent to no info whereas others function a complete index in and of itself.

As for the non-hyperlinked sources, you’ll be able to even entry them with out an web connection, resembling on airplane mode or out and about with out Wi-Fi. The knowledge 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 means of Amazon Direct Publishing.

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

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

The best way to entry an e-book’s X-Ray

It is slightly hidden

Similar to most of Kindle’s settings and options, X-Ray is straightforward to make use of and comparatively intuitive to seek out. Nevertheless, not like altering the font dimension and margin sizes, X-Ray is in a special menu. Here is methods to discover it:

1. Begin throughout the e book you are at present studying. Faucet the prime 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 prime. For instance: Notable clips, Individuals, 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 principally a group of tales in varied 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 function.

The Notable clips part consists of precisely that — X-Ray pulls varied sentences and paragraphs from throughout the e book which are vital to the story or fundamental 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 placement of every of the quotes, in addition to the chapter or part title.

Below Individuals, you may first see the point out of characters in your present web page. Then, you’ll be able to 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. After I clicked her title, I received entry to tabs that confirmed me her particular person notable clips, in addition to all mentions of her title normally. For a fundamental character, this is probably not as useful. Nevertheless, for a personality talked about solely a couple of times firstly who makes a shock look on the finish, this function is extremely helpful.

Phrases is extra hit-or-miss, however for sequence that function completely different varieties of individuals and/or magic methods, just like the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo, it is further helpful. 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. Nevertheless, in case your e book incorporates a map firstly or finish, X-Ray is a good way to shortly reference it if you happen to’re attempting to get a lay of the land — it positively helped me after I tried to know the logistics of Sam and Frodo’s journey to Mordor.