What is a good substitute for Apple Books now that it is completely broken?

I am exasperated by the Monterey version of Books. I thought the Big Sur one was bad enough but the Monterey one is appalling: the list view is completely useless, plus a waste of screen space and time scrolling for anyone with a substantial library.

I have spent thousands of dollars on ebooks bought from the Apple Books store and now the list cannot even be sorted by most of the attributes that used to be displayed (date added, category etc). I now have to revert to a manually constructed spreadsheet of metadata about the books and documents meant to be read using the Books app. So disappointing.

If Apple can't provide a decent reader app then it should allow its DRM'd ebooks to be read by a choice of third party apps.

I've already provided feedback on Books (under Big Sur AND Monterey) to Apple. Fat lot of good that seems to have done.

Calibre.

It isn't the perfect replacement, but very close. And it is free.

I've used it with all my PDFs, epubs, CRBs (comics and manga), etc. When the metadata was missing or wrong, Calibre has the option to look up the correct information for book files. With my PDFs I can create a quick summary. With all the files keywords can be added to help sort files if you want.

Calibre has a dynamic, current community of developers who create useful plugins that can extend the features of Calibre in ways that Books for macOS can't. Calibre is also actively being developed.

The one big downside is that anything you purchased from the Apple Bookstore are DRM'd and won't play nice with Calibre. There are ways around it, but you'll have to hunt that down yourself.

Another downside is if you are looking for the sleek Apple aesthetic you'll be disappointed. There are a limited number of choices to change the icons, etc, but overall it has a dated look. Calibre is focused on being the Swiss Army knife of books, etc. The appearance aspect isn't high on the priorities list.

Calibre has a lot more useful features and ways to customize it to be the way you want, but it's just easier to visit the website, watch YouTube, and start out simple. Over time, you'll become so used to using it that almost anything else, especially Books for macOS will feel very limited and restrictive.

In summary, go with Calibre. Calibre is what Books for macOS should have been from the start. Not the enraging mess that it has been neglected into.

jterning wrote:

is there a good 3rd party substitute?

Books purchased from Apple's store can normally only be read via the Books app.

For other kinds of books you should be able to find reader apps in the App Store or via google search.

Are you sure you were on the Books for MacOS page (not the separate page for iPadOS/iOS)? The Books feedback for MacOS only goes up to 1.5 (even though I am running Books 4.3). The iPadOS/iOS page has Books versions up to 4.1. Evidently Apple could not care less about Books for Mac. I can't import most of my audiobooks. I hope I can find some substitute for Books.

If you have feedback for Apple visit apple.com/feedback.

There are versions through 4.1 listed when I selected from the drop down. Just use the latest version that you can