Apple Books

Category
Books

Description of App

Apple Books is the best place to discover, read and listen to entertaining and informative books and audiobooks. Browse through top charts, personalised recommendations and expertly curated collections in the Book Store and Audiobook Store, or use search to easily find the perfect read or listen, no subscription needed. Track what you’ve read and want to read, and set your own reading goals—all in one app and across all your Apple devices.

Explore millions of books and audiobooks

• Check out today’s bestsellers, free books and special offers for readers of all ages, plus personalised recommendations.

• Explore collections curated by the Apple Books team to find your next book or audiobook in your favourite genres, from mysteries and thrillers to romance, history, self-development and kids.

• Sample any book or preview an audiobook to start enjoying the first few pages for free.

• Keep track of the books and audiobooks you’re interested in with your Want to Read list.

Customise your reading experience

• Choose from a selection of reading themes, which include a variety of fonts and background colours.

• Make your book easy to read by adjusting line height and letter spacing to your preference.

• Use Auto-Night Theme and adjust your screen brightness to make reading more comfortable for your eyes.

• Enable vertical scrolling to move continuously through books instead of flipping pages.

Make reading a habit with Reading Goals

• Set a reading goal to encourage yourself to read daily.

• Track reading streaks and how many books you’ve read this year.

• Get reminders and coaching to help you achieve your reading goals.

Share with your whole family

• Family Sharing lets you enjoy your books and audiobooks with your favourite people. Invite up to five family members.

Apple CarPlay

• Designed with safety in mind, the Audiobooks app in Apple CarPlay allows you to listen to audiobooks while driving.

• Large buttons make it easy to start and stop, rewind or fast forward, and the simplified library helps you find your next audiobook while still keeping your eyes on the road.

Apple Watch features

• Use the Audiobooks app on Apple Watch to get back to your recent audiobooks or browse your library right from your wrist.

• Use the Watch app on iPhone to choose which audiobooks to download to your Apple Watch.

Requirements & store availability

• iPhone requires iOS 11 or later.

• iPad requires iPadOS 11 or later.

• Content varies by country or region and may not be available on all devices.

Version

n/a

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Yes

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

18.2

Accessibility Comments

App is fully accessible from the ability to purchase iBooks in iBookstore to the reading if iBooks in ePub, PDF.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

App Store Link

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-books/id364709193?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Recommendations

16 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Karl 3 months 4 weeks ago

Options

Comments

By billip on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - 04:10

Yesterday, January 19th, Apple announced iBooks 2 with interactive textbooks. Unfortunately, I don't have an iPad to test it out on. I am eager to hear how accessible these new textbooks are because they could be an amazing way to access school books for all ages. Somebody please check it out and let me know!

By billip on Thursday, March 1, 2012 - 04:10

Here is a comprehensive article on the accessibility of text books in iBooks 2. Enjoy! http://www.nfb.org/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=918

By lelia on Saturday, September 1, 2012 - 04:10

Hi, I don't know how to use this app can I have some tips? Such as how do I read books? I have a book downloaded in epub format and now I just need to read the book. thanks

just open the app, go into the library, tap on the book you want to read and it will open. You use a three finger swipe right or left to go forward and backwards a page and a two finger downwards swipe to start reading, with a two finger tap to stop reading. Enjoy.

JT thanks guess what? I figured it out after asking the question, thanks I made it harder than it was

By Zack on Saturday, September 1, 2012 - 04:10

You can load ePub books onto the iPod in several ways. One is to open iTunes on your computer, go to the file menu, and select, "Add to library." If you're on a Mac you can open this with cmd-o, or on Windows with ctrl-o I believe. Select the ePub file and it will be added. Another way is using an app like DropBox on your iPod. If you open an ePub file in DB, it will let you open it in iBOoks, which will transfer it over and store it there. You could also email the files to yourself, download them in Mobile Safari, or a number of similar tricks. Hope this helps.

By Lucas Radaelli on Saturday, September 1, 2012 - 04:10

Is it possible on ibooks to jump directly to a page on the book? I don´t know why, but I was reading, at page 750, and from no where I was taken to page 300. To come back nto 750, page by page, was annoying.

By AnonyMouse on Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 04:10

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
What's New in Version 3.0

Introducing iBooks 3

• See all your iBookstore purchases in iCloud—right on your bookshelf with iOS 6
• Scroll vertically through your books with the flick of a finger using the new Scroll theme
• Receive free updates to purchased books—including new chapters, corrections, and other improvements
• Look up definitions for words in German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese with iOS 6
• Share quotes or thoughts about your favorite book with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Messages, or Mail

By Sammy on Tuesday, January 1, 2013 - 04:10

Considering getting this, but will I be able to put the books I buy on my computer too? What file types are the books that you buy?

Hi Sammy. Provided that you've set up iTunes to do this, any books you buy using iBooks can also be downloaded to your Mac or Windows PC automatically. However, I don't think there's a Mac or Windows version of iBooks, so you'll only be able to read them on an i device. Books you buy from the iBooks store are in the epub format.

By Sammy on Tuesday, January 1, 2013 - 04:10

Thank you, I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work, at least I can read the book on my iPhone I have a program that converts EPUB files to other file types, so I'll give it a try. Thanks again

By Eirik the Red on Tuesday, January 1, 2013 - 04:10

Hi, Sammy. Regarding converting epub files which you buy through iTunes or iBooks, they're very likely to be protected by DRM, so you might or might not be able to save them into a different format.

so I just wanted to start off by saying I love love love iBooks! I use it often, and love reading with it. However, right now I'm dealing with something totally wierd. When I open iBooks, it immediately closes. I've done all the necessary stuff like close it in the app switcher, and restart my phone. Someone told me to delete and reinstall, but will all my books still be there? I haven't used iCloud yet. Thanks in advance. Never had an app crash like this. Usually if they crash, it won't be for long.

By Faerie on Friday, February 1, 2013 - 04:10

If you uninstall and reinstall, all your books are on your apple account like apps, so when you sign in to your account, all your books should be there. I don't know why it would be crashing like that, sorry. The best thing would be to uninstall and reinstall.

By Sammy on Friday, February 1, 2013 - 04:10

Thank you so much! I just backed them up on my computer as well, so my next step is to delete and reinstall. Thanks for your help!

By Faerie on Friday, February 1, 2013 - 04:10

You're quite welcome, glad I could help

By Felix on Friday, February 1, 2013 - 04:10

Hello! I found it impossible to copy text from iBooks. Does anyone experience this problem or maybe I do something wrong? Best regards Felix

By AnonyMouse on Monday, April 1, 2013 - 04:10

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 3.1

 

- The iBookstore in Japan now has hundreds of thousands of books available for purchase, including fiction, manga, light novels and more.
- This version of iBooks also includes a number of improvements for reading Asian language books.

By Kelly Sapergia on Monday, July 1, 2013 - 04:10

I was reading a sample of a book in iBooks on my 5th Generation iPod Touch, when I noticed that Voiceover kept taking me to the Page Chooser slider immediately after a page was turned. I tried changing the theme to Scrolling instead of Book, but some text got skipped the next time a page was turned. Has anyone else had this problem?

By Michael Hansen on Sunday, September 1, 2013 - 04:10

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
iBooks version 3.1.1 is now available: "What's New in Version 3.1.1 This version of iBooks improves compatibility with iOS and iCloud."

By Misty Dawn on Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - 04:10

All right. It appears that adding bookmarks in iBooks is quite accessible/easy/intuitive, but, how does one *access* bookmarks that one has already added? Is this even accessible with VoiceOver?

By Misty Dawn on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 - 04:10

It appears that, with the latest version of iBooks, iBooks/Apple have now partnered with Audible to offer the ability to purchase Audible's audiobooks through the iBooks app.

This appears to be completely accessible.

The only problem is, I can't find a way to set bookmarks when I am done reading so I can come back to where I left off later.

If I am reading a book, pause it, and then come back to it a short time later, I am able to resume from where I left off. However, if I don't use the iBooks app fro some time, say, for a few days or so, when I bring the app back up, the book I was reading defaults back to the beginning and looses the position where I left off.

So, is there any way that I can actually set a bookmark in the iBooks app for audiobooks so that I am guaranteed never to lose my position in the audiobook where I left off?

I have heard from other sources there there is not (yet?) a way to do this, so, if this is the case, is there any other app I can use to make bookmarking possible?

I have heard that the Audible app itself allows one to physically mark one's place in an audiobook and that you can look under your iTunes library option within Audible in order to find audiobooks you've downloaded through iBooks? Is this true? Has anyone ever tried it? Does it work reliably?

Also, ifthis is true, how much does downloading the Audible app cost? Do you have to take a subscription to Audible in order to use the app to view individual books you've purchased through iBooks?

Thanks much.

By tunmi13 on Friday, April 1, 2016 - 04:10

Hi,

iBooks now comes with iOS 9, and cannot be deleted. This means that Apple has discontinued updating the app for iOS 9 users, but Apple looks like there're making updates for people below iOS 9.
I am gessing this from my perspective, correct me if I'm wrong.

By DMNagel on Friday, April 1, 2016 - 04:10

For years now, the south african iBooks is still only allowing us to download public domain books. I wish to pay for modern books through my apple ID. Can this be so hard? How do you wake a sleeping giant?

By Paul Hunt on Sunday, May 1, 2016 - 04:10

I'm using iBooks 4.7 and IOS 9.3 on my iPhone 6S. I cannot see my list of purchased books. Here are the steps to reproduce this bug.
1. Launch the iBooks app.
2. Select the Purchased tab.
3. Access the Books button.
4. Access either the All Books or the Not on this iPhone.
The categories such as All Books and recent books show on the screen but Voiceover doesn't speak them. You must make a selection
I reported this bug to Apple Accessibility and I hope that others will also report it.

Hello Paul,

I'm having the same problem in iBooks. I have also reported this issue to Apple Accessibility. They replied with "Hello, Thank you for your email and for bringing this to our attention. I will file a report regarding this with the appropriate people."
This issue is also present on my IPad 4 gen, but here thanks to the spilt screen view, the inaccessible list is on the left and all books are shown on the right. So there it's "useable". But I also use an iPhone 6s, here it's a no go. The only way I have found to get into the purchases (a sighted friend helped with this, apparently under the all books and the not on phone buttons there is a list of categories. The first item is all books.) is to do the following:
1. tap on either all book or not on phone button
2. drag my finger slightly down and raise finger
2. turn Voiceover off and tap on the screen where I draged my finger down.
3. turn voiceover back on and all books are shown.
This is really fiddle work, but it works. Maybe this can work for you until they fix this really annoying bug.
Have a great day,

Fritz

By Kristen on Thursday, September 1, 2016 - 04:10

Is the "Preview" mode at all like what the actual reading experience is once you buy a book? I've never used iBooks before.

Trying to decide if I can tolerate this before spending $18 on the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child eBook.

It would seem I can navigate line by line, though not by word or character if I want to confirm a word. Is this the same in the normal reading mode or is it just like this because it's a sample?

I may need to alter the speaking rate of Voice Over and try again - I usually have it at 100% but this is a bit too fast for a reading of a book/script, especially if I can't navigate by word or character.

By Use Small Words on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - 04:10

I just tried previewing an audiobook on Apple Books and was unable to pause the sample using either the play pause button on the lock screen or the two finger double tap. Has anyone else come across this and is there a way around it? Thanks.

By Jo Billard on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 - 04:10

How do you get Voiceover to read a book from the books app? I just learned that one can read sample chapters, so I set it up and all I'm getting is a picker of page numbers and Voiceover won't read anything.

By Guinea pigs an… on Friday, October 1, 2021 - 04:10

Hello has anyone else had a problem with the continuous read feature. Since the latest update. It seems to read one page and then stops. Many thanks

By AppleGirl1985 on Friday, September 1, 2023 - 04:10

I had to get rid of Apple books last year because it wasn't letting me read books properly, both with VoiceOver and with my braille display. The page turning feature didn't work very well either, which meant that words were running into each other, despite me not using auto#hyphenation. I personally don't like Apple Books. I feel like I'm reading a webpage rather than an actual book.