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 already know 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, but it surely does not do squat in Prythian.

Generally, you go weeks (or months… and even years) with out ending a ebook, and once you lastly choose 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 pals? Who’s that facet 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 unimaginable. 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. 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 strains

X-Ray is a reference instrument constructed proper into your Kindle. It allows you to faucet on the identify of a personality or place and immediately get contextual info on them. It even works with obscurer phrases particular to that ebook.

Generally, relying on the ebook, 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 whole index in and of itself.

As for the non-hyperlinked sources, you may even entry them with out an web connection, reminiscent of 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 way of Amazon Direct Publishing.

Among the issues a ebook’s X-Ray will present embrace:

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

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

It is slightly hidden

Identical to most of Kindle’s settings and options, X-Ray is simple to make use of and comparatively intuitive to seek out. Nevertheless, in contrast to altering the font measurement and margin sizes, X-Ray is in a special menu. Here is tips on how to discover it:

1. Begin inside the ebook you are presently 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 ebook, sure tabs will seem on the prime. For instance: Notable clips, Folks, Phrases, and Pictures populated for the prequel to Throne of Glass, known as Murderer’s Blade, by Sarah J Maas. This explicit ebook is mainly a set of tales in varied locations, so it seems like there are dozens of characters to maintain monitor of always, so I assumed it excellent 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 ebook which can be necessary to the story or principal characters themselves. You need to use the tiny arrows on the left and proper sides of the display screen to toggle by way 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 identify.

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 ebook, in addition to every of their mentions. The primary character of Murderer’s Blade, Celaena Sardothien, was talked about 1,081 instances. After I clicked her identify, I received entry to tabs that confirmed me her particular person notable clips, in addition to all mentions of her identify basically. For a principal character, this is probably not as useful. Nevertheless, for a personality talked about solely a few times initially who makes a shock look on the finish, this function is extremely helpful.

Phrases is extra hit-or-miss, however for sequence that function totally different sorts of individuals and/or magic techniques, just like the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo, it is further useful. Lastly, Pictures is one other part that can both be useful or not — some books solely have a picture for the quilt of the ebook itself. Nevertheless, in case your ebook encompasses a map initially or finish, X-Ray is a good way to shortly reference it in the event you’re attempting to get a lay of the land — it undoubtedly helped me after I tried to grasp the logistics of Sam and Frodo’s journey to Mordor.