My iBooks

In 2012, I attended a workshop to learn how to create amazing electronic books (e-books) for iPad, iPhone, and Mac using iBooks Author and iTunes Producer. It was very intuitive and easy to use, and the quality of the e-books was spectacular. I needed to practice so I could produce my own iBooks. At the same time, I also found out that many classical books of the Brazilian literature were becoming public domain through a portal developed by the Minister of Education, authorized by Mr. Fernando Haddad in 2004. Well, this fact made my decision easy. I decided to create some iBooks from selected Brazilian literature. I started with Machado de Assis given his contributions to the Brazilian and Portuguese literature. I had to upload the iBooks to iTunes via iTunes Connect so I could download them into my Apple devices (iPad and iPhone) to read while I was traveling around the world. So, I did it and started enjoying my iBooks.

It did not take me too long to realize that others were also downloading and reading iBooks. I assigned a symbolic cost of US$ 0.99 to them to help recovering the expenses of maintaining an iCloud account to help distributing the iBooks. I slowly became interested in developing and uploading more iBooks so I could share the same joy of reading classical literature books with others. I broadened my options, and selected other books from renowned writers such as Eça de Queirós, Aluísio de Azevedo, Raul Pompéia, Bernardo Guimarães, Euclides da Cunha, Franklin Távora, José de Alencar, Visconde de Taunay, and many others. I also included some English literature such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. It may sound crazy, but the development of and uploading iBooks, and making them available for others to read, is rewarding and therapeutic in many ways. During the process of developing iBooks of classical literature, Danny Fox, my PhD adviser and friend, asked me to help him to publish his memoir as an iBook. It was a great experience and worthwhile helping him. Below is a list of iBooks I have compiled since 2012, and e-books on the “to-do, working list” (titles without a link).

Additional information can be found on my personal website's iBooks collection.

Joaquim Maria MACHADO DE ASSIS (Rio de Janeiro, 21 de junho de 1839 — Rio de Janeiro, 29 de setembro de 1908) foi um escritor brasileiro, considerado por muitos críticos, estudiosos, escritores e leitores um dos maiores senão o maior nome da literatura do Brasil. Escreveu em praticamente todos os gêneros literários, sendo poeta, romancista, cronista, dramaturgo, contista, folhetinista, jornalista e crítico literário. Afro-descendente, testemunhou a Abolição da Escravatura e a mudança política no país quando a República substituiu o Império, e foi grande comentador e relator dos eventos político-sociais de sua época (Wikipedia em Português, Wikipedia in English).

JOSÉ Martiniano DE ALENCAR (Messejana, 1 de maio de 1829 — Rio de Janeiro, 12 de dezembro de 1877) foi um escritor e político brasileiro. É notável como escritor por ter sido o fundador do romance de temática nacional, e por ser o patrono da cadeira fundada por Machado de Assis na Academia Brasileira de Letras. Na carreira política, foi notória a sua tenaz defesa da escravidão no Brasil quando ministro da Justiça do segundo reinado (Wikipedia em Português, Wikipedia in English).

José Maria de EÇA DE QUEIRÓS (Póvoa de Varzim, 25 de novembro de 1845 — Paris, 16 de agosto de 1900) foi um dos mais importantes escritores portugueses da história. Foi autor de romances de reconhecida importância, como Os Maias e O Crime do Padre Amaro; o primeiro é considerado por muitos o melhor romance realista português do século XIX (Wikipedia em Português, Wikipedia in English).

ALUÍSIO Tancredo Gonçalves DE AZEVEDO (São Luís, 14 de abril de 1857 — Buenos Aires, 21 de janeiro de 1913) foi um romancista, contista, cronista, diplomata, caricaturista e jornalista brasileiro; além de bom desenhista e discreto pintor (Wikipedia em Português, Wikipedia in English).

BERNARDO Joaquim da Silva GUIMARÃES (Ouro Preto, 15 de agosto de 1825 — Ouro Preto, 10 de março de 1884) foi um romancista e poeta brasileiro, conhecido pelo romance A Escrava Isaura, sendo o patrono da Cadeira nº 5 da Academia Brasileira de Letras (Wikipedia em Português, Wikipedia in English).

Sir Arthur CONAN DOYLE (May 22, 1859 – July 7, 1930) was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. He was originally a physician. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction (Wikipedia).

AGATHA CHRISTIE (September 15, 1890 — January 12, 1976) was an English writer, known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. In 1971, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature (Wikipedia).

I have also compiled selected publications from various authors into iBooks based on their literary importance.