Voiceover is so inconsistent with where the focus lands when moving from page to page. The two finger swipe down sometimes Will read continuously and sometimes it will not work and then other times it will read to the bottom of the page but not continue onto the next one. What a mess. Also sometimes VoiceOver Will skip the last sentence on the page and go on to read the page number. Just such a frustrating reading experience. There are several other things that are buggy. I'm going to try and reinstall the app and hope for a better experience just felt like I had to commiserate with people who would understand.
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Just wanted to come back…
Just wanted to come back here and say that I did reinstall the app but that's not what fixed it. Deleting the activity I had associated with the books app is what did it.
I will not be trying to set up voiceover activities anytime soon again. I'm not sure how that confuse the app so much but it is undoubtedly what ended up fixing it. I had the activity set up to switch from eloquence to a nicer reading Voice as well as to turn hints off.
The app is now working exactly how I would expect
Mmm
I'm not using any activities, but sometimes still find that I can't reliably move from page to page, or that the focus ends up in the status bar, or something.
Honestly, it would really be better if I had the choice not to use the Books app. Am I grateful every day that it works? Sure. But it's a nuisance even at its best, to be endured rather than enjoyed. And, of course, you've no other option when it breaks, which it occasionally does when Apple are careless.
That's too bad
I wonder, what file types are you needing to read? I like the books app because it lets me read books in EPUB for free and works well enough with my HABLE keyboard. I do have voice dream reader but with the keyboard it's much easier for me to flick right and left rather than up or down. If anyone had suggestions of another app that I could use to read EPUB files where you can flick right and left through the content, I would be up for trying it
Largely EPUB, Yes
I don't think there's any single right app. Voice Dream has a modality completely oriented around TTS, which is great in many ways but as you say it makes it harder to seek by logical textual units. Many of the books I read are free and come from places like Project Gutenberg, so of course are often available in other formats like web pages, so can be read online and that experience is very nice and gives the most information, but alas also means that it's hard to stop reading and find your place again. It's all swings and roundabouts, and I just wish we always had the option. If your books aren't protected by DRM then at least you can convert between formats, so try not to buy DRM books (yes, easier said than done, I know).
A few thoughts
Honestly, whenever I read books on the Apple Books app, I find the experience smoother and more reliable than many other platforms. That said, it can still be frustrating when the app doesn’t work as expected. I recently got a Kindle Unlimited subscription, so I’ve been reading more on there, but I’m not really a fan of the format. I mostly read fiction, and I’ve noticed that the only way I can get a comfortable, readable copy is if the author sends it to me directly. Sometimes they offer it for free, especially for reviews, and other times I purchase it from their website or on Amazon, send them a screenshot, and they send me an ePub or PDF version. I usually prefer reading in the PDF format—it works better for me. It’s not always consistent, but it’s generally more accessible. Kindle’s formatting doesn’t always work for me. I’ve been wondering if there’s any iPhone software out there that can help download Kindle books and convert them to PDF or ePub. I know Kindle has restrictions, and I’m not sure if a computer would be necessary, but it would be helpful if Kindle gave us the option to choose the format we want. They could still apply DRM protection, but allowing readers to choose the best format would go a long way.
There are also a few websites I know of that offer books in both formats, especially those in the public domain. I regularly use Project Gutenberg, but there are other sites with a wider selection. I won’t post names here just in case there are legal concerns, but they’ve been helpful. On the Apple Books side, when I read ePub files with VoiceOver. I’ve noticed that orientation plays a huge role in how smoothly pages are read back-to-back. In most cases, locking the orientation helps VoiceOver read continuously, but sometimes I actually have to unlock it to get it to work properly. It’s inconsistent, and I haven’t figured out a definitive pattern, but I’m fairly certain the issue is tied to orientation. If locking doesn’t help, unlocking it sometimes does the trick. And occasionally, I have to close and reopen the app entirely before it starts working again.
Right now, I still use Kindle’s text-to-speech when I can, sometimes through the built-in assistive reader, and other times I switch over to the Alexa app and use that to read my Kindle content aloud. It’s not perfect, and the reading isn’t always smooth—there are noticeable pauses between lines—but it’s manageable. Overall, though, the Apple Books app still offers a more accessible and consistent reading experience. I wish both platforms allowed more flexibility in how we access and format the books we already own, and, more importantly, the books that we purchase.
Speech Central?
Have you given Speech Central a try?