Is it possible to read iBooks without an iOS device?

Question

I no longer have an iPhone or iPad, but still have books in my iTunes account that I would like to read. Is there a program for OS X that will allow me to read iBooks without an iOS device?

I am familiar with calibre, but the main issue here is the DRM.

Answer 1

Apple has released an FAQ for iBooks where it says under
About iBooks and the iBookstore → What are the requirements to use iBooks?:

You can use iBooks on iPad. You can also use iBooks on iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4 or later.

As no other hardware is mentioned, the answer for now is no.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, no.

There is no Mac OS X application for iBooks. You may want to submit a feature request to Apple.

Answer 3

Calibre will connect with your iTunes library, however iBooks are protected by DRM and not readable outside of the iBooks app. Perhaps we'll get an OSX iBooks reader in Apple's announcement tomorrow.

Answer 4

No... now. There's speculation that Apple will be responding to Amazon's release of their Kindle reader with an OSX-based iBooks reader at Thursday's education-related event. So you may want to watch the details of whatever news comes out of that.

Answer 5

If you copy a purchased epub format book out to the Finder, you can load it into calibre, but when you try to read it, the App's embedded reader tells you:

This Book is locked by DRM. To learn more about DRM and why you cannot read or convert this book in calibre, click here.

Apple has not yet provided a method to read these books on a Mac. Despite rumor, Thursday's education-related event produced no OSX-based iBooks reader. So the answer is still no, and will likely remain no for the forseeable future.