How do I read iBooks on my Macbook Air

It's astonishing how incredible obtuse most commenters are here.

There are 3 very good reasons Apple has not constructed an iReader for their computers.

Let's all gather around and listen to some wisdom...

First, who wants to sit with a computer as a book for hours on end? Yes, computers are supposed to be on and usable and portable and blah blah blah but lets get real. One purchases an item to be used for what they were invented for. Yes, it'd be fun to be able to catch a few pages on your favorite book once in a while on your computer, but be honest. Would you really want to kill your Mac screen and battery over time just because you're reading books on it?

I have owned 61 Macintosh products since 1984 and most of them did what they were supposed to do very well. An iPad as a reader is a killer machine. This is reason two;

Oh no, you've caught Apple being an actual money making company that wants to take advantage of the fact that reading a book on an iPad is overall a much preferred action over doing it on a Macbook

Are you all really this stupid?

Reason number three.

If you own a Macbook anything you probably already have an iPhone. This gets you more involved with your iPhone and makes it something you appreciate more. You can make calls, listen to music, text, take notes and read books. It's a killer device.

Don't try and make the Macbook do something it isn't designed to do.....the screens are not interactive for book reading, it's a stupid notion to say the least.

And that's the thing. Smart smart smart people work at Apple and know that it just would be used that much in the long run.

Quit whining about technology.

When I hear you idiotic kids whine about your tech devices not having this or that I laugh my head off and then think of my rotary dial phone I had as a kid. I never complained that someone's line was busy. I never complained when my sister was on the phone. I was just thankful that I was in a household that had a phone and once in a while I'd get to use it.

Get over yourselves and realize what you have.

Apple kicks bottom plain and simple.

Thanks, for your patronising and insulting response. It is not Apple that dictates what the user can do, it is driven by what the user wants to do. I have an Apple everything as well and sometimes I would like to read an ibook on my Mac. Instead I use the Kindle app from a company that at the moment seems to understand user needs better than Apple.

Apple used to 'kick bottom' (whatever that is supposed to mean), now they believe hey can dicate to their customers. It did not work for IBM, it did not work for Microsoft and ultimately it will not work for Apple.

Isn't it sad that despite owning an IPhone, a Mac MIni, a Macbook Air and an IMac, that I must rely on a Kindle App for Mac to read books on my Macbook Air when traveling for business. I don't get it?

This is an absurd limitation. Unlike the obtuse comment previously posted in this string, I find it hard to believe that Apple does not provide a way for ibooks to be read on their desktop and laptops computers. This would incredibly helpful to those of us who would like to study wherever we take our macbooks.

I see Apple missing an opportunity to provide easy access to reference material. I have MacBook, Ipad and Iphone and want to have reference books on my camera with me at all times as I travel around the world. Having an easily accessible guide to addressing a problem with my camera is sometimes essential. In this case, the fact that I can not view a specific book on my Mac has caused me to purchase the digital copy from Kindle.

It's impossible to fathom - selling iBooks that you cannot then read on your large screen on an Air, a Pro or iMac.

THis is clearly not an oversight by Apple....it's too huge to be an oversight.

This must be intentional but why??
Why do they want me to buy books from Amazon and read them on a kindle? Or in a Kindle app for Mac ....? Is it to save money or does Amazon make a payment to Apple every time a kindle app is downloaded to a Mac....?

It is not available yet, but if you really want iBooks of the iPad to come to the Mac operating system, there is this open source project you can contribute to: http://www.iemu.org/index.php/Main_Page

I can get a Kindle Reader for my MacBook and get some free e-books from Amazon, and I have an Amazon Prime account but I can NOT get the Free Amazon Prime Book(s) w/o purchasing a real hardware device called Kindle..which I don't need or want..So I guess the fact that I can't get iBooks on my MacBook from the Apple App Store is no more of a nusiance...some day soon I expect this will all change and make our lives all simpler as it should be..as it stands now the i-Book/e-Book issues are too complicated for me and MyMacBook.

I asked the same question, Why is iBook not available for my macbook air? Read some of the threads. It is simple, I will now buy my books from Amazon for my kindle apps as I will have my books wherever I am and on whatever device I am using or wanting to use. I don't believe apple would sell fewer iPads, iPhones or iPod touches if iBooks were available for MacBooks or MacBook Air. Apple is losing market share for book sales as I am now buying books elsewhere . . . This is hard for me to say as I am an Apple loyalist and stockholder.

I too buy most my books from Kindle. There are some titles not available on Kindle that are available on iBooks. I'm all for Apple making money, I own their stock, but I think they should be reasonable enough to have an app or widget to allow us to read our purchased books on our macs sometimes. Charge extra if they must, just like they do for .mp3 music files on iTunes.

Unfortunately I do not think you can.

However, you can buy your library of books from Amazon and then read them either on an ipad, a Mac or Macbook through either their App or the other Amazon Cloud Reader service.

I use the Amazon Cloud Reader on any device and can access my complete library everywhere and via different browsers.

At the moment it makes little sense to buy an iBook that may have DRM preventing you from reading it other places and also unreadable on your Mac or Mac book.

I hope Apple creates a MacOS option for iBooks

Aah. Thanks Mr Jack Apple.

Now I can get over the "I dont really want to read books on the computer, even though everyone says its so cool" guilt.

Audio boks are way better. I'll leave the few books I downloaded for a very, very rainy day and use my ipad.

Cheers!

Wish I had come across this discussion before buying 2 books yesterday on my iPad.

I've had a Kindle for 3 years, and have more than a hundred Kindle books.

After 20 PC years, I finally 'went Apple' a couple of months ago with an iPad and Air 13, and have been generally delighted with the change. Yesterday I bought my first 2 iBooks on the iPad, and they look good. Very happy. But this evening I've spent 2 hours trying to work out why I can see the iBooks in iTunes on my Air, but can't open them. Been sharing and unsharing and trying all sorts of things, before finally arriving here.

I'm astonished by this. I can buy all sorts of other media on one device and enjoy on the other, but not books purchased through Apple's dedicated ebook service. Incredible.

And to top it all we have that sneering, arrogant guy who tries to tell me it's all my fault for wanting to refer to a book on anything but an iPhone or iPad.

It's not the end of the world. I will survive not being able to see to these books on the bigger screen, but it is certainly inconvenient and annoying. I'm just amazed that Apple have made such an uncharacteristically poor commercial decision. Like many others on this thread and elsewhere, I will simply carry on buying through Kindle and be able to read their books on all devices, including my Apple devices. I just can't see why Apple would so willingly give up that revenue.

http://www.mightymeta.co.uk/test-your-website-across-ios-devices-using-the-iphon e-simulator/

http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/09/ios-simulator-without-launching-xcode/

I don't think you can install iBooks (or any app from the app store) in the simulator.