Maybe it's me. I wonder why with iBooks, that it doesn't sync with your iPhone or vice versa. If I order a book on my iPad, I have to reorder AND PAY for the same book to be on my phone - and it doesn't even sync (unless I'm missing something which is entirely possible!). So, consequently, I use The Kindle app that let's me order once, the book appears on both iPad and iPhone automatically syncs and you pay for one book!

I also wonder why our calendars don't do the same. Can't apple come up with something similar to WhisperSync?

If you buy it on the ipad you can only added it to the iphone if you sync it through itunes same vice versa. Its dosent work as apps do, if you bought it on another device it will let you download for free. The reason i dont know why it is also the same case when you buy a song on itunes on a device. So just use itunes to sync the ibooks to the phone.

But like you found out kindle handles that much better.