An apparatus and method support intuitive gestures for turning electronic book (e-book) pages in a portable terminal. The portable terminal executes an e-book and determines whether a just preceding page gesture is input, the just preceding page gesture comprising a first contact that starts to the left of a right-side user interface (UI) activation region of the e-book, followed by a drag toward the right while maintaining the first contact and releasing the first contact. When the just preceding page gesture is input, the just preceding page is displayed on a screen.