Good web-based ebook library/reader?

3 years ago by darkfoe to c/selfhost

Looking to remove Google play books from my life, so looking for something I can toss a bunch of stuff into and use.

Any good recommendations, with a decent UI?

Vendetta9076 8 points 3 years ago

For ebooks, my wife uses caliber and I use Kavita. No real reason to use one over the other I dont think. I like them both although Kavita has a slightly better reader for my liking. Both are a snap to self host and add books to.

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id10t 4 points 3 years ago

+1 for Kavita, though I don't use it for reading. I use OPDS in Kavita to read books on my phone (using MoonReader+ on Android) and share books with family.

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cnnrduncan 1 point 3 years ago

Oooh apparently Kavita can sync with KOreader using OPDS since October last year, I might have to get it set up!

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Vendetta9076 0 points 3 years ago

Ill have to try moonreader or something similar. I tried using tachiyomi but it always fails to load. I mainly only use it on desktop for my ttrpg pdfs though so then ill just use kavitas reader

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id10t 1 point 3 years ago path: 0 41447 41879 42849 70829, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 4
Vendetta9076 1 point 3 years ago

The source is there, but none of my files load. To be fair, It could just be a me thing and doesn't really matter? I haven't tried it with any epub files or anything like that.

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ccunix 6 points 3 years ago

Calibre is powerful and mature

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BinaryEnthusiast 1 point 3 years ago

I second calibre as well. I also use calibre-web as my front end for it. It has a very clean interface and user management if that’s your thing

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Carcel 4 points 3 years ago

I set up calibre-web on my home server but didn't use it for very long. I've got my books separated into fiction, nonfiction and technical libraries and calibre-web could only handle one library database. I would have had to run multiple instances to get the different libraries served. I also still had a need to use calibre on my desktop so it was necessary to reimport the database from my desktop into calibre-web to keep things in sync. If you're going to manage everything in the web interface it might work for you. It was just kind of unnecessary for my needs.

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Vendetta9076 5 points 3 years ago

Maybe Kavita is what you need. Thats what Ive been using.

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ptz 2 points 3 years ago

Nice! I hadn't come across Kavita yet. I've been using CalibeWeb for years and always found it dated and clunky. I haven't tried the demo yet, but the screenshots and feature list seem like it's Jellyfin for ebooks. I'll have to spin that up and give it a go.

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Vendetta9076 3 points 3 years ago

My wife likes caliber more but I find Kavita better personally.

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Carcel 1 point 3 years ago

Looks clean and the screenshots look like it supports multiple libraries. Their demo site won't log in but I might spin it up this weekend and play with it. I still probably don't really have a use case for it. I'm always going to need calibre on the desktop. Ubooquity is another that I tried but still had the same lack of use. One of these days I might want to move to a web based solution but not really there right now.

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Vendetta9076 1 point 3 years ago

Fair enough I suppose. Why would you need calibre on the desktop though?

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lodronsi 2 points 3 years ago

I’m running calibre in a docker container, and have 3-4 libraries setup. I am able to access them all through the built in web service. I know it’s not the same as calibre-web but just want to point this out.

I can’t compare the reading options between the two though, having only tried the one option myself.

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Berserkware 3 points 3 years ago path: 0 41264, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
Elbullazul 2 points 3 years ago

I use Komga, and for my tablet use Tachiyomi + komga plugin (there's also a plug-in for kavita), I find it's a better experience than using an OPDS reader

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darkfoe 1 point 3 years ago

Awesome, thanks for all the recommendations folks! I'm going to try out calibre-web and kavita and see how they are

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Alpha272 1 point 3 years ago

Kavita is the best one I used. But to be honest, there aren't really great solutions for that out there.. at least not as far as I can tell...

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