11. iBooks

In This Chapter

Stocking Your Library

Viewing and Organizing Your Library

Reading Books

Using the iBooks Controls

iBooks is Apple’s free e-book reader for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Like the Amazon Kindle and other e-readers, iBooks lets you download books and read them onscreen. iBooks isn’t a built-in app; to install it, tap App Store, search for ibooks, and then download the app. (For App Store details, see Chapter 5.)

Stocking Your Library

You can stock your library by downloading books from the iBookstore (Apple’s online bookstore) or adding books that you’ve downloaded from the Internet. After you’ve added books to your library, you don’t need an Internet connection to read them. iBooks lets you read books in EPUB and PDF formats—the two most popular free and open e-book standards.

You can choose among hundreds of thousands of free and paid titles in the iBookstore. To download books from the iBookstore, you need an Apple ID and a wireless Internet connection (Wi-Fi or cellular). You can browse and search books, read reviews, buy a book, or get one of the many free books. A downloaded book automatically adds itself to your iBooks library, where you can start reading it immediately. Before you buy a book, you can read other readers’ ratings and reviews or download a free sample of the book’s content.

To shop in the iBookstore:

1. Open iBooks.

2. If you’re reading a book, tap the center of the screen to show the reading controls and then tap Library in the top-left corner of the page.

3. Tap Store in the top-left corner of the library.

The iBookstore opens.

4. To browse for books, tap one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen (Featured, Top Charts, and so on) .

The Featured screen shows new and notable books spotlighted by Apple’s iBookstore staff. Flick to the bottom of the screen to see special groups of books, such as books made into movies, limited-time offers, and popular preorders.

or

To search for a book, tap the Search field at the top of the screen and then type a book title or author name.

5. To display detailed information about a book, tap the book’s cover.

The book’s Info screen appears .

A book’s Info screen shows the book description, standard book data (price, title, publisher, author, and so on), customer ratings and reviews, and links to related material.

6. Tap one of the buttons below the cover image to buy the book, get a free sample, or download a free book.

The iBookstore spins to display your library bookshelf, puts your book on the top shelf, and then shows a progress bar that tracks the download.

7. When the download completes, tap the book’s cover to read it.

Viewing and Organizing Your Library

Books downloaded from the iBookstore or the Internet appear in your iBooks library. You can organize your library by rearranging, sorting, categorizing, and deleting books. You can access your library at any time from the iBookstore or while you’re reading a book.

For most maintenance tasks, you use the library toolbar at the top of the screen.

To view your library:

• If you’re in the iBookstore, tap Library in the top-left corner of the screen.

or

If you’re reading a book, tap the center of the screen to show the reading controls and then tap Library in the top-left corner of the page.

To organize your library

• Change the view. In bookshelf view, iBooks shows the front covers of your books on virtual wooden bookshelves. In list view, your books appear as a sortable list of titles, authors, subjects, and thumbnail cover images. Bookshelf view is pretty, but list view is more practical for managing a large library. To change views, tap a view button at the right end of the toolbar.

An iBooks library in bookshelf view...

...and in list view.

• Rearrange books. In bookshelf view , touch and hold a book until it rises out of the bookshelf, and then drag it to a new position. In list view , tap the Bookshelf button at the bottom of the screen, tap Edit in the toolbar, and then drag the grabber handles to reorder the books. To sort books in list view, tap one of the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

• Create collections. You can organize your books in collections on topics of your choosing (by author, by genre, and so on). iBooks comes with two built-in generic collections—Books and PDFs—and you can create, view, edit, and delete others. To do so, tap Collections in the toolbar . Your collections appear as separate library screens that you can switch to or cycle through by tapping Collections. In bookshelf view , you can flick left or right on the bookshelf to cycle through collections. To move a book to a different collection, tap Edit in the toolbar. Deleting a collection deletes the books in that collection. You can’t edit or delete the built-in Books and PDFs collections, however.

You can organize your books in custom categories.

• Delete books. To delete a book, view the collection containing the book. Tap Edit in the toolbar, tap the target book(s), and then tap Delete.

• Search for books. You can search for library books by title or author. To do so in any collection or view, flick down to reveal the Search field at the top of the screen, tap the Search field, and then type the book title or author name.

Reading Books

To open a book, tap its cover in your library. The first time you open a book, the first page appears (or one of the early pages appears, depending on the publisher’s settings). If you open a book that you’ve been reading, it opens to the page where you left off. You can rotate your iPad to read in portrait (one-page) or landscape (two-page) view.

iBooks shows a clean page with no distracting elements. Turning a page requires only a tap on the screen edge, but for some tasks, you must summon the reading controls and page navigator by tapping the center of the screen .

A book open in portrait view. To show or hide the reading controls and page navigator, tap the center of the screen.

Using the iBooks Controls

You can do any of the following things while you read, using the reading controls or page navigator:

Turn the page. To flip to the next page, tap the right side of the screen (or flick left to right). To flip to the previous page, tap the left side of the screen (or flick to the right to left).

Jump to a page. To jump to an arbitrary page, drag the slider on the page navigator. To jump to a specific page number, tap and then type a page number. To jump by chapter, flick left or right with three fingers. To jump to a specific chapter or section, tap .

Revisit a page. To revisit a page that you’ve seen recently, tap the Back to Page or Go to Page link at the bottom of the screen.

Enlarge an image. To enlarge an image, double-tap the image. Double-tap again to resume reading.

Bookmark a page. Tap to bookmark a page that you want to return to. It’s unnecessary to bookmark your current page when you close a book, because iBooks remembers where you left off. To see all your bookmarks, tap .

Annotate text. Touch and hold any word, and then drag over text to highlight it. Use the pop-up menu to change the highlight color, switch to underlining, remove the highlight, or add or edit a note. To see all your highlights and notes, tap .

Change the type and layout. Tap to change the screen brightness, text size, font, or theme (text and background color). To eliminate the visual clutter at the edges of the screen (the fake pages, spine, and cover edges), tap Theme and then turn on Full Screen.

Use text tools. To search in a book, tap and then type a word or phrase. To define a word, double-tap the word and then tap Define in the pop-up menu. To copy text, double-tap a word to select it, drag the blue drag points to encompass the target text, and then tap Copy in the pop-up menu. You can paste the text into another app.

Close the book. To shut the book and return to your bookshelf, tap Library in the top-left corner of the screen.