How to Use Kindle Highlights in Obsidian: Setup, Templates and My Take

AI helped me translate this post from the Japanese original. Some screenshots are in Japanese.

I keep a reading log in Obsidian, and I wanted a faster way to record the books I read, so I tried the “Kindle Highlights” plugin.

In the end it wasn’t a good fit for me and I removed it, but I’m writing down the setup here anyway.

What Kindle Highlights does#

It syncs the details of the books you read on Kindle, and the passages you highlighted, into Obsidian.

I read on Kindle, so I liked the idea of linking my notes to my Kindle books.
I also highlight expressions that catch my eye when I read books in English, so turning them all into a study note sounded great.

Setting up Kindle Highlights#

Search for “Kindle Highlights” in Community Plugins and install it.

Kindle Highlights in Obsidian's Community Plugins

Plugin settings#

Here’s how I set it up.

The Kindle Highlights plugin settings

Highlights folder location: the folder where synced books are saved
Amazon region: Japan (amazon.co.jp)
Sync on Startup: OFF (syncing every time Obsidian starts seemed like it would slow things down)

Customizing the template#

Go to Templates > Manage and set what goes into each note.

Once the plugin is installed, a “Sync Your Kindle Highlights” button appears in the left sidebar. Run it from there.

If you don’t see the icon, open the command palette (Command + P) and choose “Kindle Highlights”.

File Name#

Set it to {{longTitle}}.md.

The File Name template

Each note is named after the book’s title

File Content#

The File Content template

1
---
2
title: {{title}}
3
Author: {{author}}
4
tags: book
5
words:
6
date: <% tp.date.now() %>
7
imageUrl : {{imageUrl}}
8
---
9
# {{title}}
10
{% if imageUrl %}![|300]({{ imageUrl | replace("._SY160", "") }}){% endif %}
11

12
## Metadata
13
{% trim %}
14
{% if authorUrl %}
15
* Author: [{{author}}]({{authorUrl}})
16
{% elif author %}
17
* Author: [[{{author}}]]
18
{% endif %}
19
{% if asin %}* ASIN: {{asin}}{% endif %}
20
{% if isbn %}* ISBN: {{isbn}}{% endif %}
21
{% if pages %}* Pages: {{pages}}{% endif %}
22
{% if publication %}* Publication: {{publication}}{% endif %}
23
{% if publisher %}* Publisher: {{publisher}}{% endif %}
24
{% if url %}* Reference: {{url}}{% endif %}
25
{% if appLink %}* [Kindle link]({{appLink}}){% endif %}
26
{% endtrim %}
27

28
## Highlights
29
{{highlights}}

In the note’s properties, I put the categories I want to organize by (book notes get tags: book) and the other fields I actually use.
For date, a bit of Templater code inserts today’s date (the day of the sync).

Highlight#

I left it at the default.

The Highlight template

Syncing your Kindle highlights#

Choosing Amazon Cloud to sync

Choose Amazon Cloud and press “Sync now”.

The first time, you’ll be asked to log in to your Amazon account.

(From the second time on, no login is needed and the sync starts right away.)

The Amazon login screen (in Japanese)

How long it takes depends on how many books you have. I have about 300, and it took around 10 minutes.

The notes it created#

A list of the book notes created by the sync

A book note with its highlights

I highlight sentences and English words that catch my eye, so adding meanings and notes in Japanese next to them could work nicely too.

How it worked for me#

I gave up on it, for these reasons:

I don’t want every one of my books in Obsidian
- I only want my English books in there, but there didn’t seem to be a way to filter them.
I have so many books that the notes got messy
When highlights come in automatically, they don’t stick in my head

So I went back to my old method with the “Book Search” plugin.
I’d like to keep trying other ways, too.