From the Kindle Nation Mailbag: When I'm at My Book Group, How Do I Find the Passage That's Being Discussed Without Page Numbers?

Thanks to Kindle Nation citizen Dorothy K. for a question that I suspect resonates with many Kindle owners, regardless of whether the problem is experienced in a book group, a classroom discussion, or some other setting:

Stephen, I bought your user's guide to help me use the Kindle I received at Christmas.  I love the Kindle, especially when traveling.  I downloaded and read books all the way to Arizona and back.

One drawback is that when I attend my four book groups, I cannot get to the page or the quotes that they want to talk about.  For this reason, I am questioning the new higher prices.  I can buy many books at Costco now for the Kindle price.  Why did they raise the prices?  The new Laura Bush book is $14.99.
                                                 Dorothy

Well, the lack of page numbers on the Kindle, which of course results from the changeableness of font sizes, can be challenging in a variety of ways. But here's a fix that only takes a few seconds and should work in the vast majority of situations.

Let's say your book group is discussing Rena Walmsley's steamy but unforgettable novel Girl on Fire, and focusing on the scene where Alicia Wentworth returns to Cabot Academy and apologizes, for her misadventure, to the head of the school. It won't help you to know that your fellow book group members are focused on page 217 of their paperback copies, and chances are that none of them are going to be able to direct you to location 2762 in your Kindle edition. But if someone will give you a few keywords, the process of finding the focus of discussion can go very quickly.

If someone calls out "Miss Sharp, I'm so sorry," and you just type in "sharp so sorry" and use the 5-way controller to select "find," you'll be delivered almost immediately to the passage under discussion, as seen in the screen shot below.

I hope that helps at least a little, Dorothy. And believe me, I feel your pain, and my own, about those prices, but the vast majority of Kindle books are still under ten bucks.