[NightGoat]

The deeper I get into a book, the less popular highlights I see. Can it be that not many people are reading these books through til' end?

 

[Linjeakel]

Maybe they get so engrossed in the book that they forget to highlight anything? Which is how it should be, IMHO.

I can't imagine wanting to stop every two minutes to highlight something in the first place - certainly not in a novel I was reading purely for pleasure. Neither am I in the least bit interested in seeing what someone else has highlighted, so I can't tell you if the same is true in the books I've read.

I understand the need to highlight in books you're studying, but outside of that, the whole idea mystifies me. 

 

[Dr. Laurence Brown]

I don't think I've used the highlight feature once, mainly because I see the use on text books or things used for school. I just don't feel a need for it when I'm reading for fun.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

Maybe they get so engrossed in the book that they forget to highlight anything? Which is how it should be, IMHO.

I can't imagine wanting to stop every two minutes to highlight something in the first place - certainly not in a novel I was reading purely for pleasure. Neither am I in the least bit interested in seeing what someone else has highlighted, so I can't tell you if the same is true in the books I've read.

I understand the need to highlight in books you're studying, but outside of that, the whole idea mystifies me.

This^^^

I read for fun. . . . .generally no need to highlight.

Now, I have occasionally, read a book where the language was just so. . . .right. . . that I found myself actually slowing down and re-reading just to fully absorb. But, even then, I didn't feel the need to highlight anything. . . . .

 

[mom133d (aka Liz)]

When I highlight a passage, its generally in a book I'm reading for a book club and want to share.

 

[Elk]

I have never turned on this "feature" so I have not experienced this.

Many people do not finish books.  Thus, this is a plausible explanation. 

I would expect that people that highlight continue to highlight, perhaps highlighting even more as the book gets better or they become more engrossed in it.

 

[history_lover]

Maybe they get so engrossed in the book that they forget to highlight anything? Which is how it should be, IMHO.

I can't imagine wanting to stop every two minutes to highlight something in the first place - certainly not in a novel I was reading purely for pleasure. Neither am I in the least bit interested in seeing what someone else has highlighted, so I can't tell you if the same is true in the books I've read.

I understand the need to highlight in books you're studying, but outside of that, the whole idea mystifies me.

I like to highlight funny or philosophical quotes in novels. Just like Goodreads allows you to add quotes to your profile. It's not exactly every two minutes - most novels I don't highlight at all and the ones I do only have about 1-3 highlights from the whole book.

 

[navythriller]

I haven't tried the highlight feature.  Too busy reading.    Is it pretty cool?  Should I give it a shot?

 

[NightGoat]

Well, it's obvious we all don't read for the same reasons then. 

 

[CNDudley]

When I highlight a passage, its generally in a book I'm reading for a book club and want to share.

When i read this, I thought, "Good idea!" (Never used the highlight feature--shows you where my brain was...) When I wear my author hat, it does interest me to see what people choose.

 

[Me and My Kindle]

Many people do not finish books. Thus, this is a plausible explanation.

That was my theory too. I'm always reading a bunch of e-books at the same time, and sometimes there's a couple that get left behind. (I have my Home page set up to show the most-recently read books first, so if I stop reading a book for a while, its title eventually gets buried on page 2, and then page 3...)

I highlight. But I've been reading a lot of history books, and there's key facts I want to remember. Also, sometimes I'll read something that makes me smile, and I just don't want to let it slip away without preserving it for later. It can be something funny, or something especially meaningful. (Or, just something that seems important to remember, as important as those facts in the history books.)

Here's a few things I've highlighted recently.

It was a golden afternoon. The smell of the dust they kicked up was rich and satisfying; out of thick orchards on either side the road, birds called and whistled to them cheerily; good-natured wayfarers, passing them, gave them 'Good-day,' or stopped to say nice things about their beautiful cart; and rabbits, sitting at their front doors in the hedgerows, held up their fore-paws, and said, 'O my! O my! O my!'

-- from The Wind in the Willows

It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in North-Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucke

-- from Life and Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone

Passports are only good for annoying honest folks, and aiding in the flight of rogues.

-- from Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days

"Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool."

-- from Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills

 

[Carol (was Dara)]

The main thing I've noticed about popular highlights is that they seem very random. I mean, I would think people would be highlighting amusing phrases or interesting bits of information. But there seems little rhyme or reason for the stuff I see being highlighted. It makes me wonder if people highlight by accident a lot and don't know they're doing it. Sounds like something I'd do.

 

[history_lover]

The main thing I've noticed about popular highlights is that they seem very random. I mean, I would think people would be highlighting amusing phrases or interesting bits of information. But there seems little rhyme or reason for the stuff I see being highlighted. It makes me wonder if people highlight by accident a lot and don't know they're doing it. Sounds like something I'd do.

I haven't noticed that - most of the popular highlights I see are philosophical.

 

[Elk]

From the little amount of looking at highlights I have done, they do not appear random.  Trite, yes, but not random.

I do not understand the appeal of pooling ignorance.

 

[valleycat1]

I use the highlight or bookmark feature a LOT in nonfiction books.  Usually bookmarking (which is easier), especially since I learned how to set the bookmark at the sentence that catches my eye (move the cursor to the start of that sentence, then double click the five-way).  It makes it really easy to go back through the high points of a given book.  For cookbooks, it's an easy way to navigate to favorite recipes; for inspirational books, an easy way to collect quotes. 

Generally I don't highlight something if it's already a popular highlight, since you can pull up a list of popular highlights.  Sometimes on the random popular highlight I'll see how many people marked it, out of curiosity.  I tend to use bookmark instead of highlight, since bookmarks aren't tracked & shared.

What I've found is that quite often I'm highlighting completely different spots than what the popular highlights are.

 

[QuantumIguana]

It may partially be people not finishing books, but there are other factors. People also get less enthusiastic about highlighting the further they get in the book. Also, in non-fiction, the big stuff is often earlier in the book, with later chapters filling in details.

 

[JRTomlin]

I've never highlighted a passage in a novel I've read, which certainly doesn't mean I didn't finish them. I suspect the two are totally unrelated.

Edit: 90% of my non-fiction is paper of necessity. Very little is available in ebook form. If it were, I'd love to be able to highlight especially if you can search for your own highlights. I don't even know if you can do that.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

I've never highlighted a passage in a novel I've read, which certainly doesn't mean I didn't finish them. I suspect the two are totally unrelated.

It seems to me that if you start reading something and find things interesting enough to want to highlight them, that you are unlikely to simply stop reading the book. What's more likely is that you get engrossed in the story and 'forget' to highlight things. . . . . . But, then, I'm also one who pretty much never highlights so what do I know?

 

[NightGoat]

I use the highlight or bookmark feature a LOT in nonfiction books. Usually bookmarking (which is easier), especially since I learned how to set the bookmark at the sentence that catches my eye (move the cursor to the start of that sentence, then double click the five-way). It makes it really easy to go back through the high points of a given book. For cookbooks, it's an easy way to navigate to favorite recipes; for inspirational books, an easy way to collect quotes.

Yep, it's the non-fiction books. I don't know why the fiction readers are getting haughty over not highlighting

I like to highlight parts... it gets saved to the clippings file, then I pull the clippings to my PC and dump it into a PIM and create a mini book for review.

Thanks for the tip on bookmarking. I didn't know about this feature. Maybe I should read the manual... and make some highlights in it.

Generally I don't highlight something if it's already a popular highlight, since you can pull up a list of popular highlights. Sometimes on the random popular highlight I'll see how many people marked it, out of curiosity. I tend to use bookmark instead of highlight, since bookmarks aren't tracked & shared.

I sometimes don't get the relevance of some popular highlights, so I too rarely highlight them myself.

What I've found is that quite often I'm highlighting completely different spots than what the popular highlights are.

Me too, I almost wonder if I'm reading the same book, getting the same take on the topic as others.

 

[MamaProfCrash]

I tend to highlight more in books that I am rereading then when I first read them. And there are some series that I know are long and it is nice to highlight who is who.