Thinking about self-hosting an ebook library? Here are the open source software you can consider.
I have tried every possible set up, I’ve got to say that the best one so far for me is sychthing + Koreader: dead simple, no databases, synchs annotations and highlights as well, books are simply epub files + metadata.
Aka no dealing with exports, database corruption or stuff like that.
Aren’t ebooks like… Miniscule, file-size wise? Like smaller than mp3s?
jellyfin has the option to host your books, and with the OPDS plugin you can pull books directly off the server with compatible readers (koreader, moon+, etc), no need to copy things around manually.
In addition to Calibre-Web there is also Calibre Web Automated.
I just set this up last week to finally organize and dedrm my amazon eBook library I downloaded before they disabled that. Working great so far.
I’ve been using calibre since around 2009 and it is an incredible piece of software. For handling ebooks, specially for eBook readers and file formats, it has no equal. Unfortunately it is built around the idea of installing it into one computer and connecting your eBook to it. Which makes it a bit clunky in my opinion nowadays.
Maybe calibre web fixes that, I need to check it one day. For actual books I think it falls between that and booklore.
All the other options seem to be more indicated to comics and manga, which is another aspect I’ve been noticing calibre does not do such a great job. I think I’ll have to keep two different ones, one for reading from a tablet comics and such and another for ebooks to send to the reader.
My biggest complaint about calibre-web is that you can’t search for text inside the books you’ve got. It has to be a surprise! LOL.
The one I’ve enjoyed the most is https://www.audiobookshelf.org/, it may be “focused” on audio books, but works really well for everything. It also supports offline mode (meaning downloading local copies in the app).
I do the same. It is not perfect for it but it works and it is already running. I’m not sure I would recommend it for anyone not looking for audiobooks
Wait you use it also for epub/pdf? How does that work, can you connect a client and grab it from there? Can you have both an audiobook and text version of the same book?
You can read using the web client or dedicated apps (android and ios). I feel like the clients work just as good if not better than similar software.
I haven’t tested how it handles two versions (audio/ebook) of the same book, but I have ebooks and audio books and it works well for me.
That’s really cool. After I replied I also remembered you can have multiple libraries in audiobookshelf so even if side-by-side doesn’t work it shouldn’t be an issue.
Unfortunately I love my Readest reading app too much to switch away but it’s nevertheless good to know for other family members.
it may be “focused” on audio books, but works really well for everything
Huh…didn’t know that. It has a great looking UI.
The only real downside I’ve run into is it’s very opinionated about folder structures around authors.
I needed Kobo/KOreader support, calibre-web handles this nicely. Looking to set up annotation/note sync over the weekend, then it’ll be perfect.
There’s a fork that builds out additional features, mostly around library management: https://github.com/crocodilestick/Calibre-Web-Automated
I need to look into calibre-web more. I definitely tried it, but I remember it being awkward. Might give it another go to see
I got a kobo recently and was amazed to find you can sync it with calibre-web to basically run your own book store. Browse and download any books from your server. Pretty cool.
calibre is pretty great. I also have a kobo and its the reason I can load/convert a lot of what I read.
I need to figure this out for my wife, she got one recently and I’ve been dabbling with different services but haven’t hooked the thing up to anything yet. Right now I’ve got Shelfmark and Booklore running which seem like they’ll do the job just fine, but need to explore some more
Sorry if I’m a little dense but I’ve never even considered the possibility of self hosting an ebook server/container - am I right in understanding that I can host my library of ebooks on my home server then point a client at that server so I have access to my full library without having to save the books locally on device?
Is it like offloading the processing and storage to the server and streaming the contents to device? Or more like a place to store the books and a database for metadata then once I want to read the book my device will just pull the book and all its metadata from the server to be saved locally then use my reader app of choice?
I’ll have to test some of these out as I did jailbreak my kindle and install KOReader, it does sound like something I’d be interested in learning more about when I get home.
am I right in understanding that I can host my library of ebooks on my home server then point a client at that server so I have access to my full library without having to save the books locally on device?
Some do this and some dont. I personally find ebooks to be so small that it doesnt matter, but some people use the server client to keep track of where they were at on certain books, helpwith their large collection, share with others of the family, etc…etc… And I think books with pictures such as manga, magazines, or other such take up more room so it might make sense if you have a lot of those.
I personally like having the system auto-update my device with new books and convert into nice to read formats for my custom devices. It works out really well.
Neat, makes sense thank you. I skimmed through the article and it seems like a lot of the focus is on manga, which is fine but doesn’t tackle my ebook library.
Do you personally have any recommendations for good software I should look into? I do have a server running docker if that helps.
Calibre is what I would take a look at. There is a web version that has a couple of different setups. for docker this looks interesting:
https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre-web
Ive also used yunohost (mostly for ease of use and backups) here: https://apps.yunohost.org/app/calibreweb
Its basically the same thing either way.
Nice.
Great, thank you so much!
+1 For Calibre Web. I do not have an ereader device, but I do like having my collection on the server. I do a ton of reading since I couldn’t tell you the last thing I watched on TV…it’s probably be well over a decade. But reading, that’s where it’s at for me. I’m not into fiction or novels but rather Technology, History, that kind of stuff. In the evening, I have a small NUC running Mint and a bluetooth portable screen. Works out pretty well for me.
I enjoy booklore, was easy to setup. I don’t think its very matureyet though. Just updated last night and an annoying bug where sometimes books wouldn’t show up after import has been fixed, so the upside is active development!
Honestly most of these look to be almost the same so I’m not sure what the key defining features would be.
Been using booklore for a few months now. It definitely has that new car smell to it while also having lots of small irritating bugs or UX oversights (like moving books from one shelf to another doesn’t actually deselect them so selecting another book and moving it to a different shelf moves every previously selected book to that new shelf). Keep in mind I haven’t added or altered anything in my library in about a month so this could’ve been fixed. I still think it works better than calibre-web which is what I switched from and I definitely think it’s worth a quick setup on docker.
Kavita has been good. I wanted to use it more for organising, fetching metadata and reading comic books from the server. Works well with Android and the Kahon app (+Kavita extension) on my Android tablet.
So… if my SO is buying ebooks from the Kobo store, can they upload to Calibre (etc) and then someone else can download it?
They read a heap of books and want to share them with their family… who are on Kindles, with that DRM nonsense (boooo)
Yep, though with calibre in particular you want to kind of make sure it’s locked down real good. People sniff for the ports it uses, so open calibre-web libraries get found quickly, and then will usually have some attempts at cracking.
I had mine set up as a local-only thing (could only access from my home WiFi), but from experiences with other apps that have similar crawlers, it takes about a week for them to be found. Just make sure everyone’s passwords are decent, or just share one account if it’s people you trust.
Ok, good point.
This would be local only so they can up/download ebooks here and share with the family - when they’re here.
Thanks
Thats the idea! You just have to get them off the store and download them somehow.
I’m on calibre web automated but I’m looking to migrate away. Gets tons of features that I’m not using and I can’t keep up with. Also the slop release notes are barely readable. I put up an issue for that, not sure if it’s gonna help.
I just add a book via the web interface now and then and later download it via OPDS. Probably giving Booklore a try.
I did this switch a few months back when Readarr really started to fall apart on me. Booklore has been excellent for my normal ebook library, epub, and a few pdfs. The exception being larger comic files which I find it struggles with. I’ve been using it directly connected via OPDS and it’s syncing service to KOReader, and it’s been awesome.
Overall, I highly recommend Booklore at this point!
I am using booklore for the same reason as you and it works very well. The only feature I’m missing is highlighting, but I can live without it.
I’ve been running Booklore for a while now, and was actually looking into calibre-web automated lol.
I’m interested if it has WebDAV support. It’s maybe a niche feature but I just discovered a great app that has it for backup option.
I love Calibre, was waiting on a jailbreak for my new gen kindle but I don’t even need to anymore. It auto converts whatever epub I’ve got to the Amazon format automatically and I just don’t connect to WiFi in case I do want to jailbreak. It’s so easy to use
Imma let Annie do it for me
