The iBooks app for iPad and iPhone is now a great place to keep a library of books in PDF, but some folks have been complaining on Twitter that getting the books onto the device is not particularly convenient. Using iTunes to transfer them is probably not worth the hassle. Emailing them to yourself works. But this is better:
- If you don’t use DropBox, sign up for a free account. It’s great. If you sign up by following this link, we’ll both get some extra storage space. It’s worth it, even if you’re not trying to add PDFs to iBooks.
- In your DropBox folder, create a folder for PDF books (or documents of whatever sort). Put your books in there. This is a fine place to store them, since you can keep access to them on your desktop but won’t lose them even if your computer dies.
- Download the free (and excellent) DropBox app on your iPad or iPhone, and link it to your account.
- In the DropBox app, navigate to the folder you created in step 2, open a PDF, tap the “send this to another app” icon (it looks like an arrow coming out of a box), and select iBooks.
And you’re done.