Kindle Highlights Parser

This program parses and organises highlights (and notes) made on a Kindle ebook reader. These highlights are normally stored in a file called My Clippings.txt in the Documents folder of the Kindle.

The program creates a new folder named books in the path where it is run, and in that folder creates a .md file corresponding to the title of each book.

Introduction

The program takes the contents of a .txt file and outputs them as separate Markdown (.md) files named for each book.

Highlights on a Kindle are stored in a txt file in the following format:

Mirrors (Eduardo Galeano)
- Your Highlight at location 4481-4481 | Added on Wednesday, 6 November 2019 13:36:03

“War is God’s way of teaching us geography.”
==========
Mirrors (Eduardo Galeano)
- Your Highlight at location 4879-4879 | Added on Wednesday, 6 November 2019 17:45:36

To be natural and clean, like the water we drink, love must be free and mutual. But men demand obedience and deny pleasure.
==========
Mirrors (Eduardo Galeano)
- Your Highlight at location 4908-4910 | Added on Wednesday, 6 November 2019 23:33:03

Of the revolutionaries who began it all, not one remained. All were purged: buried, locked up, or driven out. And they were removed from official photographs and from history books. The revolution elevated to the throne the most mediocre of its leaders.
==========
A Brightness Long Ago (Guy Gavriel Kay)
- Your Highlight at location 214-214 | Added on Sunday, 10 November 2019 14:25:42

We make our own choices sometimes, sometimes they are made for us.
==========
A Brightness Long Ago (Guy Gavriel Kay)
- Your Highlight at location 217-217 | Added on Sunday, 10 November 2019 14:27:23

Opportunities given are responsibilities.
==========
A Brightness Long Ago (Guy Gavriel Kay)
- Your Highlight at location 263-265 | Added on Monday, 11 November 2019 00:34:32

I have often thought that the world the god has made—in our time, at least—is not generally kind to good men. I do not know what that says about me and my own life.
==========
A Brightness Long Ago (Guy Gavriel Kay)
- Your Highlight at location 265-266 | Added on Monday, 11 November 2019 00:34:48

We accumulate sins and guilt, just by moving through our days, making choices, doing, not doing.
==========
A Brightness Long Ago (Guy Gavriel Kay)
- Your Highlight at location 285-286 | Added on Monday, 11 November 2019 00:37:14

They had taken a great risk, but you did that to get ahead in life.

The highlights follow a regular pattern, split by ==========, 10 "="s. This allows us to split them at that point.

Usage

You should have Node installed.

You will also need the .txt file of your clippings from your Kindle reader. You can easily move this onto your computer with a USB cable. This file is normally called My Clippings.txt

Installation

Clone this repo, then from the root folder run:

npm install
npm link

This will install the tool globally. You will be able to run nota from anywhere in the terminal.

Commands

nota create:

nota create <pathToClippingsFile>

uses the.txt file at path pathToClippingsFile to create a folder of books called books at the path where the command is run.

Example:

nota create My\ Clippings.txt

nota random:

nota random <pathToClippingsFile> [n]

uses the .txt file at path pathToClippings to print n random highlights to the terminal. The default value of n is 3.

Example:

nota random My\ Clippings.txt  #prints 3 random highlights from 'My Clippings.txt' to the terminal

Requirements

Node.

Issues/ Improvements

Currently the script does not distinguish betweeen Highlights and Notes
There is no way to sort the highlights according to any criteria, be it when they were made or their location in the book

Notes

Project is still in development. Kindly report any issues.

tawandamoyo/kindle-tool-cli