[ltlredwagon]

I'm sure my great ignorance will become apparent once I start to write, but I will try to be clear. I will say what I want to do and then hopefully someone can tell me if I can do it and how. I have both an older MacBook Pro running Sierra, and a new MacBook Pro running Catalina.

1. I want to buy a book online that I download to my computer. The book would reside on my computer, not anywhere else. Not interested in having a library in the cloud, etc. Not interested in having an "account" with some company.
2. My computer will read the book to me. However, I want the book to be in a format which allows me to copy and paste. If I decide I love paragraphs 2-4 on p. 137 I can highlight these paragraphs and copy them into a Word file, Text file, etc.
3. I want to be able to do the same on my iPhone. I want to be able to put the book on my iPhone and have my phone read the book to me. And I want to be able to highlight text and copy and paste into Notes.

I can currently do this decently. For example, I downloaded a pdf version of Book 1 of Gulag Archipelago in pdf form. My Mac ("Alex" is my preferred voice) can read this to me. I can highlight and copy and paste sections into Word. I can also drop this pdf file into Voice Dream on my iPhone and Voice Dream will read it to me. I have rewind and ff options which are nice. And with Voice Dream I can highlight and copy and paste sections into Notes. So, this is somewhat workable for pdf books. And there are a huge number of pdf books available which I can obtain from a wide variety of sources.

"Alex" (on computer and iPhone) does a pretty good job of reading. But I suppose better would be audio books with text, read by a professional reader. Is there an app I can use on my Mac desktop and iPhone that will do the same thing? Professional audio reading, as text scrolls by, with the option of highlighting text and copying and pasting text into Word?

Appreciate any comments.