I have only a few books purchased through Ibooks because by then, I had heard about the DRM thing. Now I can't read them.

It says that I have to have OS 10.9. I have v 9.2 because that is the latest and greatest for my one version older Itouch (5th gen). Am I missing some step? Makes no sense since I bought these books long before 10.9 came out! Alternatively, is there any way to remove the DRM so I can read on some other device?
edited: I am aware that you can access books out of the Itunes book's files, but only the DRM-free books can be taken out.