One of the features of the Apple iPad I truly enjoy is iBooks, and upon hearing that The Gutenberg Project would have 30,000 free titles available for download to one’s iBook’s library, both the reader and money saver, in me were overjoyed.  Imagine a library of that size at your disposal without dropping a single dime on any of the titles.

That joy was short lived however once I downloaded a few of my favourite classic works, Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, due to the disgustingly boring covers that completely destroyed the aesthetically pleasing faux bookshelf which houses one’s iBooks downloads.

Enter something truly grand, iBook – Custom Covers for Free Books!

Created by Yong Lee, iPhone & iPad developer, this service takes the disgusting to the divine by providing the artistic covers your downloaded literary classics deserve.  Lee’s creation was born out of a desire to give the iBooks app’s free classics something above and beyond the generic covers that did not meet the standards or expectations that he had as a avid Apple fan.

By going to the iBook-Custom Covers for Free Books! Facebook page and donating $2.99 through PayPal,  Lee will send you the covers that are currently available, as well as future creations, to replace the generic, hideous, ones that accompany the free downloads at present.

I downloaded several titles to put Lee’s creation to the test and I can say that $2.99 is a bargain given what you and your iPad receive.  Both of the aforementioned titles as well as the likes of Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Gulliver’s Travels, and many more, were made infinitely better by the covers provided by Lee.  Further, adding the covers to one’s downloaded titles could not get any easier, requiring only the 5 steps below:

1. Download free books to your iPad through iBooks
2. Sync your iPad with your computer
3. Right click or command click on the book in your iTunes library, click “select info,” and then click “artwork”
4. Locate the correct book cover and drag and drop into the artwork window
5. Sync iPad

If you plan on using iBooks, save money by downloading free titles, filling your iBooks library for less than the average beverage at Starbucks.  Thereafter, I strongly encourage you to visit Lee’s Facebook page, pony up $2.99 and enjoy both the beauty of your iPad and the titles in your iBooks library.