Kindle Footnotes
The only thing about the Kindle’s reading experience that kills me is the footnotes. They function like hyperlinks to the back of the book, which means to visit them you have to use the joystick to navigate word by word to see them, and then use the back button to get back to where you started.
All of footnotes are next to each other which means sometimes you see spoilers in future ones when you don’t want to.
What I think I want is footnotes displayed inline at the bottom of the page, like on a normal book.
Although Matt, if you’re reading the kind of book with that kind of notes – I would have thought seeing the other notes around the current one was hardly “a spoiler”. You’re trying to understanding and use the knowledge it contains ?
I often read that kind of text / treatise starting with the notes and references … to see what’s new
Ian Glendinning
June 22, 2009 at 6:30 am
One recent example was the new Warren Buffett Snowball book, in which seeing a future footnote indicated that his wife Susie passed away, even though I hadn’t gotten to that part of the story yet.
Matt
June 22, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I use wp-footnotes. I like them … they do auto-numbering and have wiki-like a link back to where you found them.
chartinael
June 22, 2009 at 7:26 am
That has nothing to do with the Kindle.
Matt
June 22, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Why not in a pop-up?
Carson
June 22, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Because you would still have to use the joystick to navigate to it, the joystick navigation is the annoying part.
Matt
June 22, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Agreed, footnotes are a far superior reading experience to endnotes, be that in a paper book or an electronic book. Footnotes should be a glance, not a chore.
Matt Wiebe
June 22, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I’m an e-book publisher, who publishes books with, sometimes, one hundred or more footnotes.
The problem in e-books is that all kinds of e-book files, Kindle, ePub, Mobipocket, etc., don’t deal properly with footnotes (and many other things we are used to see on p-books). And we still lack a good e-book standard. But, thinking about your problem, I think there is simple thing one publisher could do to prevent this issue: just break the pages, between each note. Would be a little better, don’t you agree?
But, Matt, why do you use Kindle? The books you buy for it can’t be read with any other e-reader that is not from Amazon. You can’t read them in your computer. If, someday, you change from Kindle to any other e-reader, you wont be able to transfer your books with you. So, you don’t really “own” your Kindle library.
Eduardo Melo
June 24, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Because I have incredible trust for Amazon.
Matt
June 24, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I prefer Sony Reader. Accepts non-proprietary format, read ePub files (the international e-book standard), I can easily read wherever I want (computer, iPhone) and don’t lock me into just one bookseller.
Anyway, both of them will be museum pieces pretty soon. Nice talk to you! Regards, Eduardo.
Eduardo Melo
June 24, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I agree with you – the Kindle has been the best reading experience of any e-reader I’ve tried. I love using it.
And the footnotes are a pain. It is the only weakness for me.
Christine
June 25, 2009 at 12:38 am
I really want a Kindle, though I’m worried that I am selling my beliefs out.
Cory Doctorow asks some important questions, that need answering to at least know where we stand http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/17/amazon-releases-some.html
Lloyd Budd
July 3, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Is the lack of proper footnotes a limitation of the kindle or the ebook format, which is basically html, and that the bottom of the “page” doesn’t actually exist in an ebook?
Jeff
June 24, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Because it knows the links that are on a given “page” and can put them inline at the bottom.
Matt
June 24, 2009 at 5:50 pm