My Favorite Apps to Export Book Notes to Roam
Based on Dan Silvestre's video on YouTube. If you like this content, support the original creators by watching, liking and subscribing to their content.
Use Readwise to connect a Kindle and automatically export highlights into Roam as book-specific pages with author and extracted text.
Briefing
Exporting book highlights into Roam turns passive reading into a reusable knowledge base—so the core move is automating highlight capture from Kindle, PDFs, and physical books, then pushing those highlights into Roam for later summarization and content creation.
For Kindle ebooks, the workflow starts with Amazon’s highlight library at read.amazon.com/notebook, where highlights can be copied in bulk. But copying directly from Amazon creates messy text (for example, repeated “yellow highlight” labels tied to page numbers), which makes cleanup annoying. The cleaner approach uses Readwise. After connecting a Kindle to Readwise (via its import/sync flow), Readwise pulls in the user’s Kindle highlights and exports them into Roam’s database (the creator’s Roam “Saddle Casting” setup). In practice, the import completes with a count of highlights (e.g., hundreds), then Readwise exports them into a new Roam page named for the book (such as “YouTube Secrets”). That page includes metadata like the author and the automatically extracted highlight text, giving a ready-to-edit starting point for turning raw quotes into summaries or other note formats.
Readwise also supports syncing from a Kindle’s my clippings txt file, either by uploading that file or by plugging in the Kindle device so Readwise can ingest highlights and push them into Roam. For Kindle content that isn’t coming from Amazon’s store—such as PDFs or other ebook sources—the transcript recommends a Mac-first alternative: Clip. Clip imports Kindle highlights via a “File → Import from Kindle” connection, then lets the user search across imported books (e.g., finding a title like “Show Your Work”). From there, the user can copy highlights out as plain text or Markdown and paste them into a new Roam page for that book. Clip’s free tier limits exports (and the paid option is described as a one-time fee).
For Windows users, the transcript points to Clippings.io. That tool relies on the my clippings txt file: the user uploads the file to Clippings.io, selects a book, exports highlights (often as text including personal notes), downloads the result, and then copies it into Roam. The free plan is constrained by a per-highlight character limit (described as 100 characters), with a paid monthly upgrade for higher limits.
Physical books are handled differently. Instead of manually retyping highlights, Readwise OCR lets the user photograph a page with a phone, select the highlighted region, and save it as a highlight. After saving, those OCR-captured passages appear in Readwise under quick passages and can be copied into the Roam workflow or set to push automatically. The transcript emphasizes that this is more work than Kindle, but it avoids the “nightmare” of manual transcription.
Once highlights land in Roam, the final step is making them more valuable through progressive summarization—turning quote dumps into structured, increasingly condensed notes that can later feed articles, courses, or videos.
Cornell Notes
The workflow centers on exporting highlights into Roam so reading turns into searchable, reusable notes. For Kindle ebooks, Readwise connects to the Kindle, imports hundreds of highlights, and pushes them into Roam as a new page per book (with author and extracted highlight text). For non-Amazon Kindle content and PDFs, the transcript recommends Clip on Mac (import from Kindle, search books, copy highlights as Markdown or text, paste into Roam). Windows users are directed to Clippings.io, which ingests the my clippings txt file and exports highlights with a free-plan character limit. For physical books, Readwise OCR captures highlighted passages via phone photos and selection, then exports the resulting text into the same Roam note flow.
Why does copying Kindle highlights directly from Amazon into Roam create extra cleanup work?
How does Readwise streamline Kindle-to-Roam exporting?
What’s the alternative when Kindle highlights aren’t coming from Amazon store content?
How does Clippings.io work for Windows users, and what limitation appears on the free plan?
How are highlights from physical books captured without manual retyping?
Review Questions
- What specific problem arises when copying Kindle highlights directly from Amazon, and how does Readwise avoid it?
- Compare Clip and Clippings.io: what input file or connection does each rely on, and how do they export into Roam?
- Describe the steps for capturing a physical-book highlight using Readwise OCR and getting it into your Roam notes.
Key Points
- 1
Use Readwise to connect a Kindle and automatically export highlights into Roam as book-specific pages with author and extracted text.
- 2
Avoid direct copy/paste from Amazon’s notebook when possible because it includes repeated “yellow highlight” page-label clutter that requires cleanup.
- 3
For non-Amazon Kindle content and PDFs, use Clip on Mac to import from Kindle, search books, and copy highlights as Markdown or text into Roam.
- 4
For Windows, use Clippings.io by uploading the my clippings txt file, exporting highlights as text, and copying them into Roam; watch the free-plan 100-character-per-highlight limit.
- 5
For physical books, use Readwise OCR: photograph the page, select the highlighted region, save the highlight, then copy or sync it into Roam.
- 6
After exporting, convert raw highlights into higher-value notes using progressive summarization so quotes become reusable knowledge.