As part of the recent rollout of iOS 12, Apple launched a brand-new chapter of its e-reading app. Formerly known as iBooks, the newly redesigned Apple Books offers users a single, sleek destination for all their reading needs. It’s a timely move: these days, readers who enjoy e-books are increasingly turning away from purpose-built devices such as the Kindle and instead doing their reading on smartphones and tablets. And with the release of Apple Books, the e-reading experience just became a whole lot better.
With the new and improved Apple Books, you can:
Buy books.
Open the Apple Books app and, once you get past the introductory slides, you’ll find yourself in the Reading Now tab. If you want a free-form browsing experience, you can scroll down to find categories of books to jump into, or you can tap the button at the top of the screen that says Explore the Book Store. This opens up a great set of curated collections and also displays the latest charts of the most popular books downloaded to give you an idea of what to check out. If you’re interested in a book that’s free, simply tap to download. Buying a paid book is just as easy because the Book Store is already connected to your iTunes account and your payment information: again, just tap the book you want, then tap on the purchase confirmation button.
Pick up where you left off (on multiple devices).
The ability to sync across multiple devices is one of the most convenient features of Apple Books. Say you like to read on your iPad at home, but you prefer to read on your iPhone when you’re commuting to work. To be able to pick up your book on one device in exactly the same place you left off on a different device, all you need to do is turn on the Books option in your iCloud settings. Go to the iCloud menu in your General Settings, scroll down, and switch the toggle under Books to On. Then, in the Books menu of your General Settings, toggle the Reading Now option (under Syncing) to On. Then begin reading! (Remember that for syncing to work, you must be signed in to the same iCloud account on all of your devices.)
Organize your library.
For dedicated readers, the question of how to organize your books is a very personal one. Fortunately, Apple Books makes it easy to customize your library. While the app includes some default collections, you can also add as many collections as you want to your digital library and personalize them however you choose. A category devoted to your favorite detective stories from the 1970s, for example? Done! In addition, you have the option to sort your books manually rather than by title or author, and you can put the same book into multiple collections for easier access.
Listen to your books.
If you’re an audiobook enthusiast and a reader, Apple Books has got you covered. Apple Books features a special audiobooks area in the Book Store, so you can browse and download audiobooks without having to use a separate app. And, of course, you can listen to your audiobook directly in the app, as well. You can use the easy-to-navigate track markers, jump right to a specific time in the audiobook, skip forward or back by a set number of seconds, and even change the playback speed.
Rate and review your reads.
If you choose what to read next based on recommendations from other readers, it’s easy to return the favor by contributing your own ratings and reviews via Apple Books. Tap the More button displayed below the book you want to review, then tap Rate and Review. You can give the book a star rating, leave a comment, or both, and your feedback may be included in the ratings and comments that the Book Store displays. You can also use Apple Books’ simple Love/Dislike system to help improve the accuracy of the books that the app suggests to you.
Customize your reading experience.
Through Apple Books, nearly everything about the digital reading experience can be customized to suit your needs and preferences. Within the book you’re reading, for example, you can control the brightness of the display, adjust the font size (this can be especially helpful if you’re reading on a device with a smaller screen), or change the font or page color. In the General Settings menu of the Books app, you can make changes that will apply to the layout and navigation of all books. For example, you can turn off features like auto-hyphenation (where words that are too long to fit on one line are automatically hyphenated) or full justification (which spreads text across the full width of a page), or you can enable features like scrolling view (which enables you to scroll continuously through the book rather than dividing it up into distinct pages).