Reading Library Ebooks on iPad with Bluefire, the Easy Way

There were a couple of people who thought that the instructions I posted for reading library ebooks on the iPad (and similar devices) with Bluefire Reader were a bit complicated, and didn't want to have to download in one place, upload in another, and transfer things around. Bluefire's Micah Bowers offered some help for creating a direct link in the comments, and another reader, Greg from Oregon, wrote a script to make that new link practically create itself.

I'm going to finish off the job by explaining step-by-step how to make a bookmarklet out of Greg's script, following Greg's instructions as well as a process I learned from installing Instapaper (a wonderful, but unrelated app). Don't you love the internet!

1. Open up your iPad (iPod Touch or iPhone) and come back to this page. Remember, the address is http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com.

2. Follow this link to jump to a page that contains the script that you'll have to add as a bookmark. (The whole point of this part is to save you the trouble of typing in the script, but feel free if you're so inclined.)

3. You will find a bit of explanation and a block of code. Press in the white space until the Copy command appears. Drag the upper blue dot so that only the red code is selected. Choose Copy.



4. Click the big plus sign in Safari's toolbar and then choose Add Bookmark from the pop-down menu in order to create a bookmark. Of course, you don't really want a bookmark to the instruction page, but we can't copy in the code until the bookmark itself exists. Click Save.



5. Once the bookmark exists, click the Bookmarks icon (next to the Plus sign), and click Edit. Then click the name “Overdrive bookmark” to open up the bookmark we just created.



6. Erase the old link by holding down your finger over the address (the part that starts http://www.elizabethcastro...) and then choosing Select All and finally Cut.



7. Press in the link space one more time until the Paste button appears. Choose it! The script is copied to the bookmark. You can click anywhere in the page to close the Editing window. (You don't have to save.)



The bookmarklet is installed and you never have to look at the code again! Now you're ready to go to your library and find a book. Follow the regular procedure (see Borrowing Library ebooks with a Nook if you need help). Once you've checked out your book and are ready to download, instead of clicking the Download button, click the Overdrive Bookmark we just created.



Rather magically, a new page will appear with a much better link:



And when you click the link, you jump to Bluefire Reader and it downloads your book, verifies your authorization code as normal, and then wonderfully asks you if you'd like to Read it later or Read it NOW!



Ah, you may scoff, that's even worse that what I told you the other day. Perhaps. But once that bookmarklet is installed (it's OK to get someone else to do it for you! or for you to install it for your parents or your kids), reading library ebooks on the iPad is a veritable breeze.

Thank you Micah, Greg, and the guy from Instapaper for working this all out!

And a couple of notes. I haven't tested trying to download multiple titles at once. I suspect it won't work. Just download them one at a time. And I haven't been able to get it to work for PDF ebooks. Not sure why not. Maybe you know?

And finally, this does not remove or bypass DRM at all, since Bluefire requires your iPad or similar to be authorized with your Adobe account. Further, I didn't find any information on Overdrive's site that would indicate they care what device or software you use to read their books, as long as you're not trying to override their protection.

One more finally. I was curious if you could get the book back out, say to read on your computer or copy to another authorized device, and indeed you can. Just go to iTunes, click on the Apps tab, click on Bluefire to see the books it contains, and drag the desired book back out to your computer. Works fine.