Books app freezes after selecting "speak" on selected content

I'm using iPadOS 17.5.1, iPad Pro. This issue hasn't been resolved since I first encountered it in 2019 on my iPhone 6s.

I experience cognitive challenges, and rely on spoken content, particularly Apple's "speak selected content feature".

Description of issue: I'd open a pdf in Books, and it would work fine. When I select the portion of text I wish to be spoken, select "speak" from the popup, the popup would then go away as usual, and the content would be spoken out as it should. However, despite the text still being read out loud from beginning to end, the Books app itself freezes entirely immediately after "speak" is selected. Pages cannot be interacted with, nothing moves, you cannot click on anything. You are still able to exit the app entirely, and that is about the only action you can take.

What triggers the issue: It's unknown to me what specifically triggers this issue. The problem doesn't always occur. It very often occurs, but not always.

The only known way to resolve the issue: refresh the app every time it freezes. And it freezes every time.

What hasn't worked:

• Force restarting the device (do note that this issue has spanned across multiple devices, over multiple years)
• Using a freshly downloaded pdf

I hope that this bug is pushed up Apple's priority list, because not only has it been present for years, it's an accessibility issue.

[Edited by Moderator]