Way to automatically highlight in iBooks — with no pop-up — in iOS 16?

Hi all,

I just got a new iPad, iOS 16. In earlier versions, when you use iBooks, you could drag your finger to automatically highlight text. In this new version, it does not allow you to do this automatically. Each time I drag my finger, there is a pop-up with the option to select "highlight."

It's quite annoying to have this added step each time I want to highlight. Has anyone found a workaround? I'm hoping there's a way to automatically highlight by dragging my finger across the screen.

Thanks for your help.