kindle-highlights-to-org

An Emacs package to convert your Kindle highlights to an org tree

Overview

Takes a My Clippings.txt file from a Kindle and converts it into a relative org tree with format:

* Book Title
** Note contents
- Metadata (location and time)
** Note contents
- Metadata (location and time)

Does not modify original file or update existing data.

Notes:

• User-inserted newlines should be preserved (these are usually rare).
• At the moment, these newlines will create broken headings with newlines in the middle of them.
• Notes are sorted by date added.
• May or may not work with languages other than English -- bug reports appreciated

Usage

1. Add kindle-highlights-to-org.el into your load path. Set the appropriate use-package, something like the following for DOOM and org-roam:

(use-package! kindle-highlights-to-org
  :after org-roam
  :defer t)

2. Position your cursor in an org buffer where you want the data inserted (tree will be inserted relative to current heading).
3. Call (kindle-highlights-to-org) and select your My Clippings.txt file, usually located in the /documents folder of your USB-connected Kindle.

Note that the original file isn't modified and the tree will be built from scratch every time so it may be worth deleting it to force a new file to be created after you've pulled the data.

Tested on Kindle Paperwhite.

Dev notes

• Uses eldev for lint, test, ect.

;;; Format of My Clippings.txt file:
;;;     - 5+ lines for each note, regardless of length
;;; 1. TITLE
;;; 2. METADATA
;;;     - one line with blocks separated by | char
;;;     - some amount of blocks, usually 2-3 but 4 might be possible
;;;     - last block should be time added
;;;     - can be broken apart but identifying blocks is difficult due to
;;;       language differences eg 'Added on' is only for English
;;; 3. BLANK LINE
;;; 4-n. NOTEDATA
;;;     - mostly on one line but user can manually add a newline char
;;; n+1. SEPERATOR
;;;     - 10 equal signs
;;;     - ==========
;;;     - is at the end of the note block, not the start (file ends with one)

Possible future improvements

• Include more options for tree construction
• Newlines shouldn't destroy headings.
• Better sanity checks on the given file
• Add hash to notes to allow updating (has internationalization problems)

See also

• lvzon/kindle-clippings: similar script which outputs to text files, uses python
• lxyu/kindle-clippings: alternative to above
• kindle2notion: export Kindle Notes into Notion, uses python
• Reading Notes for Kindle: local web app for managing Kindle notes

Available for Hire

I'm available for freelance, contracts, and consulting both remotely and in the Hudson Valley, NY (USA) area. Some more about me and what I can do for you.

Feel free to drop me a message at:

hi [a+] zweisolutions {●} com

License

AGPLv3

kindle-highlights-to-org
Copyright (C) 2021 Zweihänder

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.