Apple Books - Almost Impossible To Search in Store

Ok. So for YEARS I have been reading almost exclusively on my IPad with the Apple Books App. Several years ago some (genius I am sure) changed the format (or whatever you call it) and in addition to many annoying changes I have a **** of a time when trying to buy a book! If I wanted to browse forever I’m sure it would be fine but I usually have to fiddle around forever to find a way to search by author, title or whatever. Tonight for the life of me I can’t figure out a way to search in the bookstore.

Can anyone out there help me before I pull out all my hair?