Kindle Trick

Blogger Mark Hurst discusses one benefit the Kindle has over traditional books: the search feature. While reading Ken Follett's bestseller The Pillars of the Earth, Hurst noticed Follett's overreliance on the phrase “his heart is in his mouth.” Using the Kindle's handy search feature, Hurst discovered 17 instances of "coronary snacks":

This is how Follett described a character who was nervous or anxious or frightened. It’s not the most refined metaphor to begin with, but there it was—and then a few pages later, someone else’s heart was in his mouth — and then, next chapter, another heart in another mouth - and again — more hearts, more mouths — until I finally finished the book and thought, just how many times did Follett use that ONE metaphor in a single book? ... And the answer is: 13. Actually 17, if you count the four instances of "her heart in her mouth." (It seems that men are, on the whole, a lot hungrier for coronary snacks.)