Voiceover is so inconsistent with where the focus lands when moving from page to page. The two finger swipe down sometimes Will read continuously and sometimes it will not work and then other times it will read to the bottom of the page but not continue onto the next one. What a mess. Also sometimes VoiceOver Will skip the last sentence on the page and go on to read the page number. Just such a frustrating reading experience. There are several other things that are buggy. I'm going to try and reinstall the app and hope for a better experience just felt like I had to commiserate with people who would understand.
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Just wanted to come back…
Just wanted to come back here and say that I did reinstall the app but that's not what fixed it. Deleting the activity I had associated with the books app is what did it.
I will not be trying to set up voiceover activities anytime soon again. I'm not sure how that confuse the app so much but it is undoubtedly what ended up fixing it. I had the activity set up to switch from eloquence to a nicer reading Voice as well as to turn hints off.
The app is now working exactly how I would expect
Mmm
I'm not using any activities, but sometimes still find that I can't reliably move from page to page, or that the focus ends up in the status bar, or something.
Honestly, it would really be better if I had the choice not to use the Books app. Am I grateful every day that it works? Sure. But it's a nuisance even at its best, to be endured rather than enjoyed. And, of course, you've no other option when it breaks, which it occasionally does when Apple are careless.
That's too bad
I wonder, what file types are you needing to read? I like the books app because it lets me read books in EPUB for free and works well enough with my HABLE keyboard. I do have voice dream reader but with the keyboard it's much easier for me to flick right and left rather than up or down. If anyone had suggestions of another app that I could use to read EPUB files where you can flick right and left through the content, I would be up for trying it
Largely EPUB, Yes
I don't think there's any single right app. Voice Dream has a modality completely oriented around TTS, which is great in many ways but as you say it makes it harder to seek by logical textual units. Many of the books I read are free and come from places like Project Gutenberg, so of course are often available in other formats like web pages, so can be read online and that experience is very nice and gives the most information, but alas also means that it's hard to stop reading and find your place again. It's all swings and roundabouts, and I just wish we always had the option. If your books aren't protected by DRM then at least you can convert between formats, so try not to buy DRM books (yes, easier said than done, I know).