Your ebook library workflow? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DJ_Lobster · 2023-12-19 21:21 Been using the 'arrs for years on my main Windows computer and early last year made the jump to an Unraid server. Everything I've put together has gone pretty well, or at the very least I can research and figure out my issue with some time. A couple months ago I wanted to get into ebooks and am having a pretty hard time and figured it's time to ask questions. What is everyone that is happy with their setup doing? I've done a lot of searching and there definitely isn't as much info on ebook setups as there are for other forms of media. Audiobooks, movies, tv, music, are all good and I'm very happy with how I have those set up. I mostly find people having issues and not a lot of people that are totally happy with how they do books. The exception being the die-hard calibre folks, but I'm wanting something more automated and easy to use for friends and family. In November I saw all the metadata issues with Readarr and tried to use LazyLibrarian first and got the hang of it, but could not get it to work with Calibre. It would see the database but kept saying the database was empty. I gave up one day and the next day a book actually imported but never could figure out why/how or make it happen again. Now I've got Readarr set up. It's working great. Set up Calibre with it for metadata and then Kavita for reading. I plan to put my comics/manga on there once this is all working okay. I'd like to have a few accounts for friends and family to use, have it be accessible anywhere and with various devices. Kavita seems to check all those boxes. I added a friends GoodReads list to Readarr, it grabbed the books automatically, Calibre updated the metadata, and then nothing happened on Kavita. From what I can tell it's because it doesn't like Calibre's folder structure and that can't be changed. Not a huge deal, but would prefer to not have to wait until whenever the next days auto-scan happens or have to manually do it. Also the number of books between Kavita and Readarr don't match so some aren't being picked up, which is another folder structure issue from what I've read. ​ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ambiance6462 · 2023-12-19 21:52 i use calibre-web for books, komga for manga/comics, and i run readarr but only for the calendar sync. calibre-web has Kobo api sync which is cool. lazylibrarian is the only thing as far as i know that supports library genesis (with a ton of troubleshooting) which readarr will not do and is a dealbreaker for me. honestly i wonder when something will come around to replace calibre. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluffer_Wuffer · 2023-12-19 23:21 I've never found any suitable auto-file finder for books, especially audiobooks etc, and don't even get me started on the metadata.. Whilst I have no right to bitch.. its like, come-on.. somebody has taken the time and effort to de-DRM, and seed a file, have they stripped it out intentionally?! Instead every few weeks, I go on a download binge.. I then put the files into a "process" directory, I then use mp3tag to pull metadata and add it to the files.. And not to judge - my NAS just seems to magically collect TV shows and movies.. but I honestly own 99% of the books I download, as authors and narrators are about the only "artists" that I think actually deserve every penny, but fuck T&C's, I don't trust any digital platform that forces DRM... DRM is akin to purchasing a hardback, then being expected to leaving it the library. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cellulosa · 2023-12-20 00:15 I just get ebooks from libgen and import them on the native Calibre app. That’s super powerful and I just edit metadata manually, convert to azw3 and finally read on my Kindle. Maybe I’m a slow reader but can’t see the need to have a setup more complex than that for books. I also have full arr stack for media. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DJ_Lobster · 2023-12-20 00:35 That really doesn't sound bad and I don't think I'd mind doing it this way if I was the only one using it. I don't read fast enough to make something like that annoying, but it would be after a while doing it for a group of people 😅 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Iced__t · 2023-12-20 00:38 > calibre-web for books, komga for manga/comics This is the way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FUCKUSERNAME2 · 2023-12-20 01:18 Kavita has an 'Enable Folder Watching' toggle to avoid this: > Allows Kavita to monitor Library Folders to detect changes and invoke scanning on those changes. This allows content to be updated without manually invoking scans or waiting for nightly scans. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Icannotfindnow · 2023-12-20 02:43 I am on unraid also. I use Readarr(through Prowlarr) with Kavita and I really enjoy it. I use Moon+ Reader Pro on Android to read the ebooks. I don't have many comics/manga but am looking to set up Komga for the few I do have. Folder structure /media/books/L Ron Hubbard/Dianetics/Dianetics\_The\_ Modern\_Science\_of\_Mental\_Health.epub I assume you used the Trash guides to set up your UnRaid folders. I wish I had friends that read so I could use Goodreads that way (nice to know that is possible) I haven't found anything good at Audiobooks. All manually downloaded and run through a Steam program called "Audiobook Converter" to convert MP3 to M4b. (curious what you are using) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HolaGuacamola · 2023-12-20 04:19 Wonderful example of the path. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lannistersstark · 2023-12-20 08:05 Books get downloaded via IRC highway or Libgen into an auto-watched folder and then imported to calibre via calibre-server. A couple of times a week I'd go in and clean the titles/covers/descs/categories up via a calibre installation on my desktop that's pointed to my calibre- server db but otherwise they usually are acceptable. Calibre processes them and Calibre-web shows them to users. Users then have their own 'send-to' email address that delivers books to their native devices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jimbuscus · 2023-12-20 08:12 I like Komga for my comics more than Kavita, so I am waiting for it's full ebook support which is currently being worked on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ostiniatoze · 2023-12-20 11:00 I wrote a python script that downloads any book I buy from Google, or download from libgen and adds it to calibre. Metadata is a little iffy especially with the Google books but it works fairly well ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ecredes · 2023-12-20 12:47 Can't use readarr for audiobooks? I was considering setting it up for this purpose. Right now, I'm just doing audiobooks manually. I have found Freac to be one of the best converter options for converting multiple mp3 files to chapterized M4B files or ogg/opus. Audiobookshelf is the best for self hosting/phone apps, nothing else comes close imo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DJ_Lobster · 2023-12-20 14:46 A second instance of Readarr that only does audiobooks and then Audiobookshelf to organize and play them. It's also great with podcasts which is a plus. There are mobile apps for Audiobookshelf that are in beta but supposed to be pretty good already. I've only recently set this up so I've only used the browser since I mostly listen at work at my desk. And yeah, Trash guides has been the single most useful thing in my whole media setup. My whole 'arrs workflow got so much better after I found those guides. I like to encourage anyone that can to show some support on their sponsor page. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DJ_Lobster · 2023-12-20 14:48 I was looking at that and the ebook support seemed pretty new and lacks a lot of features I was looking for. Glad to hear it's being worked on because it looks really good for comics! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DJ_Lobster · 2023-12-20 15:01 Yeah, I have that option on. The documentation says when it see a change it starts scanning 5 mins from the event time to allow time for other changes to be grouped, but nothing ever happens. I thought it wasn't working correctly because the folder structure didn't match what they suggest (I'm using the mandatory structure Calibre uses), but maybe the folder watching just isn't working at all for me... That would be a awesome if it's just an issue with folder watching that I need to figure out and not changing how the library is stored. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Icannotfindnow · 2023-12-20 15:02 Thanks for the heads up on fre:ac. I will definitely check it out. I like that I can use it on linux. I guess I never thought about Readarr for Audiobooks because my indexers don't have many audiobooks. I get most of mine going through ABB. I will have to revisit Audiobookshelf. I tried it before but not seriously because I already had Plex running audiobooks and I couldn't figure out an easy way to get access off my network. I have been using Plex for awhile and have been really happy with the scraping and displaying of audiobooks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ecredes · 2023-12-20 15:12 I tried Plex initially, and it was functional enough. I dont fault anyone for just going with plex out of simplicity. There were some missing features like playback speed setting, good chapter/bookmark controls, format support which were dealbreakers for me in terms of audiobooks. That was at least over a year ago now, maybe the features are better now? That said, audiobookshelf is purpose built for the format, it just blows everything else out of the water. The dedicated app for audiobooks is great. I'm also trying to move away from Plex to open source solutions going forward. I'm not a fan of plex spying on private servers and breaking trust about data collection. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Icannotfindnow · 2023-12-20 15:13 Thanks. I will have to look into a second instance for audiobooks. I am using Plex now for audiobooks but will have to revisit Audiobookshelf. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Icannotfindnow · 2023-12-20 15:25 The only thing that stands out for PLEX is that the scrapers do a really good job of sorting all of my audiobooks. I have been collecting audiobooks for awhile and don't have everything in the proper folder structure and format and it still sorts through the mess and is right the majority of the time. I have finally just started converting all my new books to M4B with proper tags and save in the proper folder structure. /media/audiobook/L Ron Hubbard/Dianetics/Dianetics.m4b. I HATE the lack of playback speed adjustment in Plex. I have been working to move to FOSS for everything I can for the reason you mentioned. I am running Jellyfin now inside my house and use Plex outside of my network. (I am not super knowledgeable about networking and am super nervous about opening up ports) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jimbuscus · 2023-12-21 01:03 [Turns out EPUB support got another update a few days ago](https://github.com/gotson/komga/releases/tag/1.9.0), I'll be checking this out to see if it's ready for normal use. The rate that Komga gets updates has been impressive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DJ_Lobster · 2023-12-22 15:14 Thanks for the heads up, that's an awesome update.