Honestly, I’m personally not just after a self hosting solution, I’m mostly trying to replace US services and companies. As part of that, I’ve started using Jellyfin and I think it’s great but the book library part is a bit clunky.
I think I’ve got three use cases:
- Research papers
- Textbooks
- Novels / Non-fiction
I’m okay with three separate setups for these too. I do listen to quite a few audiobooks but they’re currently independent and I’m happy to keep it that way. I’m happy to hear integrated solutions, or suggestions for an audio book library, but this post is focused on the above list.
The main device I’d do most of my reading on is an iPhone but I’d also be wanting to open up the research papers and textbooks on my MacBook. I’d want to be able to add research papers from the iPhone, or at least a light weight way to list them to quickly add later.
Note taking and highlighting isn’t an issue, I’ve started using markdown for this. Syncing how much of the book I’ve read is. Ideally between devices but on the one device would work too.
I figure I’ll have to drop some of my aims here but I thought I’d see if anyone knows of decent setups to try. Neither Jellyfin or Calibre seem amazing but maybe I could just configure them better.
Since there is a mandated image here I’m starting to wonder if I’m really in the wrong place, but I put textbook cover there
I think BookLore ticks all your boxes. It has opds as well as kobo syncing. You can also read via the built-in reader on the web to keep things synced. It supports separate libraries so you can keep your textbooks and research papers separate.
It’s being pretty actively developed with new features every few weeks. I’ve been very pleased with it after trying half a dozen other alternatives that were never quite smooth enough.
I’ve been happy with Calibre Web and downloading to the official reader apps, but I’m open to try new things.
What strikes me as odd is why starting a Java software in this day and age. Java in the server is the COBOL of the 2000s, mostly used for legacy software.
The devs are also pretty responsive to bug reports!
I will say that they themselves have mentioned that there is kind of a limit in library size because the project is meant to serve “small to modest personal libraries” but I think it was ranked as a few thousand, so that won’t be a problem for most people I think.
A few thousand means ?
I have 11000 ebooks on Calibre and am looking at alternatives.
I believe the numbers I saw were about 3-5k, so it might not handle your collection well. However, I encourage you to check their github to confirm rather than just go off my vague recollection alone.
I use Kavita, and it works pretty well for me. Syncs your progress, and supports lots of formats.
It seems to be limited to reading through the web interface, so might not work on an e-reader. Also adding stuff to it requires manually managing the directory it is assigned to, so its a little clunky there as well
E-reader support is still pretty clunky on Kavita, but doable. I normally host my books on Kavita, and then download them to my eReader, and that does a fine job, but it won’t sync progress across devices
I don’t own an e-reader but if I’m not mistaken, kavita has a KOReader plugin so it probably possible to use it with an e-reader, android reader has many more options I think.
Audiobookshelf actually has a pretty good ebook implementation.
It’s not its primary focus, but if you have it for audiobooks already, it’s a no-brianer.
Interesting, I mainly use audiobookshelf for podcasts along with my audiobooks, I’ll have to look at what the ebook integration is like.
My recommendation for research papers would be Zotero. You have the option of using their cloud (free and paid tiers are available) or you can simply point it at where you’d like to store your documents (this will be up to personal preference, I’ve seen it done using sync tools and self-hosted “clouds” such as Nextcloud).
I’ve personally been using Zotero for just over 6 or 7 years and it’s honestly been such a game changer for my productivity. Not only does it help keep track of my research, but it also has a very robust plugin ecosystem (such as automatically fetching missing DOIs, more advanced file renaming, fetching stats on papers such as how frequently it’s been cited, etc.).
I’d be happy to help you get it setup if you give it a shot and run into any issues!
WebDAV is probably the easiest for syncing the actual articles. I use some standalone server whose name I can’t recall but there’s a bunch of options.
I also use calibre-web for accessing articles through koreader + opds on a Kobo ereader, although this is a manual process and could probably be refined.
my wife has a Kobo reader and it’s a great alternative, from Canada. The reader works great with Calibre on desktop for books you already own, and the Kobo store is more or less equivalent to the Kindle store.
I have no suggestion for getting files off an iPhone, but presumably an app exists to arbitrarily send files to desktop, and from there Calibre works.
Kobo build quality is better than othe e-readers, and it supports color and markups. Overall it’s pretty good for PDFs/textbooks and novels, but manga/comics can be a little goofy.
I cant speak on the syncing since she has only the one device.
Good luck!
Edit: seems like you edited (or i misunderstood) the OP. Kobo (the device) works great with US library lending, but ymmv if you are in another country. If you use the kobo app on your phone it will sync your position with the device, but the app is pretty flawed on mobile and doesnt have a desktop version i’m aware of.
I wouldnt mind using the app to read fiction, but it’s not great for reference material. I use a standalone pdf reader for that kind of thing on my phone, which obviously doesnt sync.
I’ll second the kobo ecosystem but add that if you install the 3rd party koreader software on it it will make syncing to a local calibre-web seamless. And it leaves the stock reader software in place so you can read drm encrypted files if needed. I have a similar use case to yours where I use the device to read books but also papers, which I usually pdf and put in a specific shelf in calibre
I had looked into Kobo, but ultimately Boox won out. Zero proprietary ecosystem, so I can use Calibre to manage everything.
I need to do a bit more work, but totally worth it to be completely DRM free
Two ways I like to get files to/from a mobile device: Syncthing (Möbius on iOS) or ResilioSync.
Resilio has a great feature, Selective Sync, that enables arbitrarily syncing files from a remote location. Nice for grabbing specific files when needed.
Unfortunately neither one handles any kind of reading status, they’re just file sync.
I wonder if there is some metadata any viewers use that I could also sync between devices
When you say sync, do you mean just the books, or reading status (what page you’re on?)
What page I’m on. I’ve tried a few things that basically open you to the start again. Especially with PDFs (so opening research papers on the iPhone. Thats not really self hosting but part of the system that needs to work together).
I’ll update the post so people get this in first pass. Thanks!
I kind of figured, because why wouldn’t you want that?
I haven’t tried it yet but Calibre Web looks like what you need. A good write-up on it here. Looks like you can enable uploads from your phone.
I run it. It’s good if you want to just host the books. Share my 2k size ebook library with my group of friends.
