Setting the record straight, maybe it’s my own fault my highlighting was lost. (See the immediate previous Kindle post.) Digging through the online “User Guide,” I discovered the following:

Using Highlights, Bookmarks, and Notes

“Annotations (bookmarks, highlights, and notes) that you make in Kindle books are stored in your Kindle Library on Amazon.com. Your Kindle must be connected wirelessly for your annotations to be saved.”

The above is from the Kindle Fire “User Guide,” under the section “Books: Reading On Kindle Fire.”

I believe it explains why I lost the highlighting I did as I was reading last night. Thinking that I was clever, I turned off the Wi-Fi last night to save battery life. The book is on my Kindle device, so I can read it without being connected to Wi-Fi. (Morale of this story: “Don’t think! It can only get you in trouble.”)

It’s my own fault. I didn’t read the User Guide closely enough. In fact, I’m not sure I read the User Guide at all when I first opened up my Kindle and started playing with it. The device did not come with a printed manual. It had only one small page of instructions for getting started. I figured it must be easy to use. (See my first Kindle post here.)

At any rate, now I see the one magic sentence:

“Your Kindle must be connected wirelessly for your annotations to be saved.”

‘Nother words, I bought and paid for “Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy.”

I own the copy that’s on my Kindle.

What I didn’t understand is that my highlighting would not be saved to my book on my Kindle. The highlighting would be saved only to the book in the cloud, and only if I was connected to Wi-Fi while I was reading.

The B&N Nook conserves the battery when I’m not connected to the Net. But Amazon wants my Kindle Fire to stay tethered to the Net all the time, the better to buy stuff. That means I can read my book if I’m not connected to Wi-Fi, but my highlighting will be lost when I finish reading and turn off the device.

I should know better than to think that any device containing computer programming will work intuitively. You have to follow the rules.

I apologize to Amazon for my misunderstanding. I plead user error and throw myself on the mercy of the court.

— John Hayden