This sounds useful for when you forget something that happened chapters earlier or when you space out and need to figure out what's happening. This feature should work for the user, author's shouldn't be able to deprive me of this tool.

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michaelbuckbee 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Fantasy series seem like they've gotten longer and longer and it's often years between volumes. Many authors have started doing recaps of their previous books at the start of later volumes, but not all.

I could see this being useful for that.

	▲	xtiansimon 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I want a character chart, social graph. I can also imagine a character interaction graph, animated by chapter. Oh, and pronunciation. The Sun Eater series is eloquent, but the names are inscrutable without having heard a few of the audio books.
	▲	danielbln 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I use LLMs for that all the time. Most frontier models have books trained in, so I just ask for a spoiler free recap or ask about certain characters. Works well in my experience, and made jumping back into Wheel of Time a lot easier

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hasbot 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Or were away from the book for a while and are coming back to it. I've read 1000 page books that I just got tired of reading, so put 'em down for a bit to read something else. Anathem by Neal Stephenson comes to mind.

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georgefrowny 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> when you space out and need to figure out what's happening

Ok it's not just me that gets to the end of a page and it's like the page didn't exist.

On the other hand the times I use the search function on the ereader most are when I stumble across a continuity error. It would be interesting if a story-reading AI can be used to detect those. Not that I want there to be less human editing in books, if anything we seem to need more.

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Mouvelie 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Good lord, at this point just drone off in front of a Netflix show. How bad has it gotten that you even suggest that one can "forget what happened chapters earlier" ? This is not normal.

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giobox 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

This is hardly that strange, life gets in the way for many of us. I too have many times wished for an easy way to recap a book I've had to put down for a week or two - this is by no means an endorsement of how Amazon have done it here, but you are making incredibly arrogant assumptions about how others enjoy books.

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Y_Y 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's been happening to me since before Netflix licked their first envelope. Have some sympathy for people born during memory shortages!

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squigz 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm an avid reader. I'm reading The Silmarillion right now. There have been countless times where a short summary of an area/character/etc has been helpful. Luckily, in this particular case, there are very good Tolkien fan dictionaries that serve well.

As another example, I read the Aubrey-Maturin series earlier this year. Many times I would have liked a quick summary of a previous voyage or of a political plotline or something.

Don't be so judgemental.

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potsandpans 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm an avid reader and I can assure you that it's very normal.

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supern0va 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you have ample free time and few commitments and/or you read very short pop fiction, I could see how you might believe this. But there's a vast world of very long and dense literature, and also...people have kids and a life that gets in the way. Combine the two and...well, I can see why this feature would be useful. :)

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TheServitor 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Forgetting what has happened earlier in a book you put down is very normal. Have you met your fellow humans?

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CGMthrowaway 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Quantum-Mechanics-David-...

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3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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wahnfrieden 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What kind of books are you reading? You're telling on yourself (and very arrogant about it).

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freedomben 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

My thought exactly. Not all books are the same, and I'm willing to bet that GP is not reading the same books that I am, and not with the same goals.

	▲	wahnfrieden 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Even Pynchon's lightest work yet, the newly released Shadow Ticket, has me immediately reading it a 2nd time for many details I missed the first time through. Imagine the arrogance of shaming a Pynchon reader assuming they should never need to check notes or refer back to earlier pages.

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lm28469 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It's more telling about the current state of affairs than the person who commented. Forgetting things is part of life, move on, we don't need daddy bezos sucking 1.21 gigawatts per request to tell you that some side character drunk a beer 12 chapters ago so you can enjoy the joke you just missed.

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DennisP 3 days ago | parent [-]

I don't mind bezos using 1.21 gigawatts per request, as long as it's only for a very short time.

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georgefrowny 3 days ago | parent [-]

Brutal on the crest factor though, you'll definitely get a snotty phone call from your power company if you keep that up.

	▲	DennisP 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe. Depends on how many capacitors you have.

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lm28469 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

We need to baby sit homoconsomators every step of the way or they get scared and confused