Looking for a solution to manage and access the directory on my NAS that is full of ebooks. Optimally I want to be able to web reader them but also automagically send it to the email that sends it to my kindle. And e-book wise, the majority of mine are epub/mobi that I got from various kickstarters or humble bundles. But I also have some RPG books (so PDF with a LOT of pictures) and manga (PDF or CBR).
Did some research and checked the various reference lists. Mostly narrowed it down to
- Weird-ass Calibre running in Kasm and accessed through a god awful web UI: This is actually what I used for the past year or two because there was a solution that was fairly plug and play with unraid. I… would rather never do this again
- “Calibre Web” https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web. This seems to be what I actually want (an actual web interface to Calibre!) but it looks like the lead dev lost their shit with obnoxious demands from users. And while I appreciate they are still supporting it, “I am going to ignore the issues unless I feel like it” seems like a good way to get a bunch of unacknowledged CVEs…
- Kavita https://www.kavitareader.com. Only found out about this today but it looks clean and efficient (plex-like). REALLY not a fan of the subscription model already being there but I also don’t want any of those features.
Thoughts? There anything better I am missing because none of these look all that great?
FWIW, I was also looking for an ebook server solution. I looked at Calibre/Calibre-web and did not at all like how that worked and how Calibre-web was dependent on the Calibre library, and I hated how janky Calibre was as a docker container.
I settled on Audiobookshelf. I already had that up and running for my audiobooks, and they’ve been adding and improving ebook support, and I’ve been very happy with Audiobookshelf for both ebooks and audiobooks.
I didn’t care for Kavita because of the folder structure it required for ebooks. I may have been biased against Kavita’s folder requirements because I already had Audiobookshelf up and running.
For Audiobookshelf, the structure is:
Author > Series Directory (if applicable) > Book Title (directory) > Book fileI use audiobookshelf and it’s amazing. So polished and just works.
The epub reader needs work imo, however it’s more than usable and its what I use myself. Once the reader gets a few qol updates I’ll always recommend it over Cal-web or kavita.