I’ve picked up an eink Android tablet, which is awesome. However I have plenty of ebooks I’ve purchased over the years on places such as Humble, and I was wondering whether there was a self hosted solution like Plex/Emby/Jellyfin but designed for ebooks.
I’ve seen Calibre but it doesn’t seem to be quite the same thing, and running a sync is a bit clunky for the spouse factor.
Is there anything that would index the books, show a bookshelf and allow me to read them, with offline support?
Preferably with an Android app for reading with, and the reader handling eink rather than scrolling.
Syncthing and KoReader. I also have a few android eink devices and this system works great for me. When I need a better interface for organizing/editing metadata of files I use calibre which also has some plugins to help free your files from proprietary epub readers.
So just using Calibre to sync your books is kind of a pain in the ass, I agree. Especially with multiple users. However! Sync isn’t the only way of getting books on your devices.
You can set up a locally browsable OPDS catalog for you to download your books from. There should be a bunch of “Calibre server” options in your sharing settings in Calibre, that’s what you’ll need. You can access it from the web browser or your reader’s built-in OPDS browser (most android ebook readers that aren’t dedicated app store portals have one).
That being said you can also install the calibre-web package to your homelab, which hosts the library database and the OPDS server standalone. With that setup you’d only need to use the Calibre app to manage or add books your remote library, either directly or syncing the library database file.
Both of these methods are okay if you want to curate the books on your devices, but if you’re like me and want all the books everywhere sync is ideal. For that I use the Reading List Calibre extension, which lets you create multiple reading lists for multiple devices that are populated with a library search (i.e. “date:<=45daysago” will search for books added to Calibre within the last 45 days) and automatically sync up on device connection.
We each have an account. Login to the web interface. Choose the desired book. Click send. The epub is emailed to our Kindle.
Running calibre-web off a docker instance. Library is on my NAS.
I use the Window client to add books, handle conversions, and manage things since I have specialized plugins. You can read via the web app as well, but I prefer my ancient Paperwhite.
Amazon have been making this harder and harder. Originally you could define an allowlist of senders, and any emails from those senders would go to the Kindle. Then they changed it so you have to click a link in an email to approve it. Now, you have to go to Amazon, find the Kindle content page (which is well hidden), and click a button to approve it.
If you know a workaround for that then I’d love to hear it.
I vaguely remember what you’re referring to and being pretty frustrated about it. I can’t remember exactly what changed regarding clicking an emailed link. I simply don’t experience that any longer. Either Amazon stopped or I changed some setting somewhere that I’m not recalling off hand… 😬
Currently, I have calibre-web (and the windows client) set to use my email’s SMTP credentials. I then set the “sender” to an Amazon approved email. In my case, the email isn’t actually real. I just use a forwarder.
So not a solution you’re asking for but the remarkable e-ink tablet has a great set of apps for mobile devices and computers. It hosts your books in the cloud so you’ll always have access to stuff anywhere with internet. Automatically syncs across devices. Pretty slick.
The reader itself leaves a lot to be desired though. There’s literally no UI besides the arrow keys and no way to configure font rendering etc. It’s cool that the functionality is there, but it needs work.
I think kavita works fairly well. It doesn’t have an app, but it comes with a built-in OPDS server, so you can just plug the link into any app that supports it and access all your book. For eink devices I recommend koreader. For other devices you may prefer an app with a less confusing UI, but that’s a matter of preference. Alternatively the kavita webclient has a reader as well.
I use it for digital books and it works great. You can configure it to send a book to an email so it appears automatically. The auto tagging works well too.
The calibre content server also serves OPDS. Once you have a OPDS server in place you’ll need to point a capable reader at it, but after that syncing and reading happens in the reader.
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Syncthing and KoReader. I also have a few android eink devices and this system works great for me. When I need a better interface for organizing/editing metadata of files I use calibre which also has some plugins to help free your files from proprietary epub readers.
AudiobookShelf does more than audiobooks. You can do epubs, etc.
I shill audiobookshelf every chance I get.
This might be what you’re looking for https://lemux.minnix.dev/post/157074
So just using Calibre to sync your books is kind of a pain in the ass, I agree. Especially with multiple users. However! Sync isn’t the only way of getting books on your devices.
You can set up a locally browsable OPDS catalog for you to download your books from. There should be a bunch of “Calibre server” options in your sharing settings in Calibre, that’s what you’ll need. You can access it from the web browser or your reader’s built-in OPDS browser (most android ebook readers that aren’t dedicated app store portals have one).
That being said you can also install the calibre-web package to your homelab, which hosts the library database and the OPDS server standalone. With that setup you’d only need to use the Calibre app to manage or add books your remote library, either directly or syncing the library database file.
Both of these methods are okay if you want to curate the books on your devices, but if you’re like me and want all the books everywhere sync is ideal. For that I use the Reading List Calibre extension, which lets you create multiple reading lists for multiple devices that are populated with a library search (i.e. “date:<=45daysago” will search for books added to Calibre within the last 45 days) and automatically sync up on device connection.
What about Calibre databse but Calibre-web for a daily use?
https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web
This.
We each have an account. Login to the web interface. Choose the desired book. Click send. The epub is emailed to our Kindle.
Running calibre-web off a docker instance. Library is on my NAS.
I use the Window client to add books, handle conversions, and manage things since I have specialized plugins. You can read via the web app as well, but I prefer my ancient Paperwhite.
Amazon have been making this harder and harder. Originally you could define an allowlist of senders, and any emails from those senders would go to the Kindle. Then they changed it so you have to click a link in an email to approve it. Now, you have to go to Amazon, find the Kindle content page (which is well hidden), and click a button to approve it.
If you know a workaround for that then I’d love to hear it.
I vaguely remember what you’re referring to and being pretty frustrated about it. I can’t remember exactly what changed regarding clicking an emailed link. I simply don’t experience that any longer. Either Amazon stopped or I changed some setting somewhere that I’m not recalling off hand… 😬
Currently, I have calibre-web (and the windows client) set to use my email’s SMTP credentials. I then set the “sender” to an Amazon approved email. In my case, the email isn’t actually real. I just use a forwarder.
Make sure you add that sender email to the Amazon personal document approved email list.
The most recent bump I’ve had with Amazon is that they no longer accept mobi files. It’s no big deal though since they accept epubs without an issue.
So not a solution you’re asking for but the remarkable e-ink tablet has a great set of apps for mobile devices and computers. It hosts your books in the cloud so you’ll always have access to stuff anywhere with internet. Automatically syncs across devices. Pretty slick.
Yeah. An eInk device that can run an Android file browser and just grab eBook files off the local network is a fantastic solution.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
2 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.
[Thread #496 for this sub, first seen 8th Feb 2024, 18:45] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Good bot
https://wiki.kavitareader.com/en/faq/external-readers
I keep not getting to it, so can’t vouch for it, but Kavita looks like it’s worth trying.
I use Kavita. I have some minor complaints but in general it works.
I haven’t tried others though, so can’t say if it’s the best or not.
I’ve used Ubooquity on and off for this. It has some nice features, but isn’t open source.
Koreader has a plugin to sync with calibre local server and its a REALLY good ereader software
deleted by creator
Jellyfin can do books with a plugin
The reader itself leaves a lot to be desired though. There’s literally no UI besides the arrow keys and no way to configure font rendering etc. It’s cool that the functionality is there, but it needs work.
I’m a JF developer and personally use Kavita for my books 🤣
On android there is a client for it, called Jellybook, but I have never used it. Maybe that has better UI than the official app.
I think kavita works fairly well. It doesn’t have an app, but it comes with a built-in OPDS server, so you can just plug the link into any app that supports it and access all your book. For eink devices I recommend koreader. For other devices you may prefer an app with a less confusing UI, but that’s a matter of preference. Alternatively the kavita webclient has a reader as well.
Audiobookshelf claims to have ebook support. I only use it for audio books so I cannot say whether it’s good for that or not.
It works great for the audio books.
I use it for digital books and it works great. You can configure it to send a book to an email so it appears automatically. The auto tagging works well too.
Support for ebooks is honestly pretty good. The reader is mid tier at best but it’ll only get better, hopefully.
You’re probably looking for something that supports OPDS to automatically download e-books to your e-reader.
First search result is Komga
❤️
Thank you. Half the battle is learning the correct terminology!
Calibre-web supports OPDS and uses the Calibre database.
The calibre content server also serves OPDS. Once you have a OPDS server in place you’ll need to point a capable reader at it, but after that syncing and reading happens in the reader.