How to save quotes from books (and actually see them again)
Where book quotes get lost (highlights, Goodreads, screenshots), a workflow for Kindle and paper books, and how to keep and reread them in Kandou.
The short answer. Save the line with the book and the author in an app that will show it to you again. Kindle highlights and Goodreads store quotes but never resurface them; a quotes app with a rotation and a widget does. In Kandou you paste the line, add the book or author as the source, file it under a Books category, and it comes back on your Home Screen on the schedule you set. Free on iPhone, no account; Pro is $4.99 USD once. Kandou does not scan pages with the camera, so it suits people who want to keep a few lines per book, not capture every highlight.
Where book quotes go to die
Every reader has a version of this. You finish a book, three lines in it genuinely changed how you think, and a month later you cannot quote one of them. The lines are somewhere: in Kindle’s highlights, in a Goodreads “quotes” page, in a photo of a paperback page, in a Notes file called “book quotes” that you opened once.
The pattern is always the same. The place you saved the quote is a place you never return to. Kindle highlights are a static archive; Goodreads quotes are a public page you do not visit; Notes is a list you stopped reading. I wrote about why remembering lines from books takes a system; this guide is the system for the quotes themselves.
What “saving” a book quote should mean
Three fields and one mechanism:
- The line, exactly as written, including the punctuation you liked.
- The source: book title and author. Later you will want to know which book it came from more than you expect.
- A category: Books at minimum, and often the theme (Work, Love, Stoic) so the quote can show up when the theme does.
- A way back: a rotation, a widget, or a wallpaper that shows one saved line at a time without you opening anything.
Workflows by source
Kindle and Apple Books
Highlight as you read, as you already do. Then, once per book, open the highlights and pick the few lines that still land, not all forty. Copy each one, open Kandou, tap the plus button, paste, and set the source to “Book title, Author”. Filing five lines per book is a ten-minute job that produces a collection you will use; exporting all forty produces a second archive you will not.
Paper books
Dog-ear or use a slip of paper while reading. At the end, type the lines into Kandou directly from the page. Typing a sentence you loved is not a chore; it is the first reread. If you want camera capture of whole pages, Kandou is not that tool; apps such as QOTD or Quotemarks scan pages, at the cost of being capture-first rather than reread-first.
Goodreads
Goodreads keeps quotes on a public page tied to the book, which is good for discovery and useless for rereading. Copy the ones that matter into Kandou with the book as the source, and let Goodreads keep the rest.
Audiobooks and podcasts
Pause, type the line, name the book and narrator or the episode and guest. The friction is the filter: if a line is not worth thirty seconds, it was not the line.
Setting it up in Kandou
In Kandou
- Create a Books category (tap the plus button, switch to Category, pick the book icon and a color). Add theme categories later if you want them; a quote holds one category, so pick the one you would search by.
- Add a quote: plus button, paste or type the line, set Author or Source to the book and author, choose the category, tap Add.
- Set the rotation in Settings so the Home tab and the widget change daily (or weekly, or at custom times). Filter the Home tab to Books when you want only book lines.
- Put the widget on your Home Screen: press and hold the Home Screen, tap the plus button, search for Kandou, add the small widget (free) or the medium one (Pro).
- Make a wallpaper of the one line that mattered most: open the quote, tap Share, choose Wallpaper, save it to Photos, and set it as your Lock Screen.
Compared with Readwise and the built-in highlight tools
Readwise is the serious tool for people who want every highlight from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper, and more synced automatically, with spaced-repetition reviews. It is excellent at that and costs $7.99 a month. Kindle’s own highlight page is free and static.
Kandou sits in between: you choose a few lines per book by hand, it keeps them with their sources, and it resurfaces them daily for free (Pro is $4.99 once). If you finish a book a week and highlight heavily, Readwise’s automation earns its subscription. If you want the ten lines a year that actually changed something, Kandou is the lighter tool.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to save quotes from books?
It depends on volume. For syncing every Kindle highlight automatically, Readwise ($7.99 a month). For keeping a few chosen lines per book with the book and author, and seeing them again on a widget and a daily rotation, Kandou (free on iPhone, Pro $4.99 once).
Can Kandou scan a page from a physical book?
No. Kandou has no camera scanning; you type or paste quotes. That keeps the app simple and makes each saved quote a deliberate choice, but if you want to capture whole pages, a scanner app is the better fit.
How do I save Kindle highlights into Kandou?
Open your Kindle highlights, copy the line you want, open Kandou, tap the plus button, paste it, and add the book and author as the source. Choose a few lines per book rather than all of them.
Does Kandou keep the book title with the quote?
Yes. Every quote has an author-or-source field; write “Book title, Author” and search will find the quote by either.
Is there a limit on book quotes in the free version?
The free version holds up to 15 quotes of your own, plus the 25-quote Starter collection. Kandou Pro ($4.99 USD once) makes your own quotes unlimited.