iBooks Sucks

Being in Taobaoland means getting my hands on English publications is near impossible.

I initially thought going over to Hong Kong would solve my problem but the selection over there isn't any better if you are looking for those not in the current best-selling lists.

I used to order via Amazon.com and have them deliver to a US address since I used to travel to the US 4 to 6 times a year.

Now that my travelling days are behind me, I am grateful to modern technology for coming up with a tablet just in time. Something that is portable and durable in terms of battery life.

My trusty iPad 1 is my current ebook reader and I have to say that Apple's own iBooks software sucks monkey balls to the max.

I have since ordered 2 books which I regretted via iBooks and both gave me rendering errors in between the pages.

Not wanting to give up a fight to see my money go down the drain, I scour the intarwebs for solutions and lo and behold. I am not the only one with this problem. There is a shit bucket of unfortunate souls out there with the same predicament.

One of the solution, found, was to upgrade to version 1.5 and everything would be sweet and peachy every after.

WRONG!

I am already on version 2.1.1 and I am still having the same friggin' problem. Oh wait. The webpage with the solution was dated 2011 (that's like the 1900s in internet years). 

Here is my solution which I will break it down into two parts.

1. How to resolve the current page rendering error so that you don't see your $9.99 go down the toilet?
   
   Close and open the bladdy program, close and open, close and open until by some miracle, your tireless persistence tugged the heartstrings of the Gods of Technology, that they felt pity and grant you the power to restore every page, that you've paid, back to you.
   
   In short, bulldoze or in local speak Choot Goo Lat
   
   
2. How to prevent encountering the same page rendering error with your next book purchase, thereby risking your dollars again?
   
   Don't ever buy another book from iBooks.
   
   I am now a happy customer with Kindle by Amazon. Nook by Barnes & Noble is also a worthy consideration but I stayed put with Kindle since it has everything more or less that Nook carries anyway and so I do not see the need for redundancy. Besides, I am already an existing customer and hence don't really want the hassle to sign up for a new account.
   
   Stanza? A pretty useless reader in my humble opinion. Save your disk space for better things like Fruit Ninja.

Image Credit: http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com

- Voxeros