Automated book grabbing is very hard imo. I've tried readarr and a bunch of other things. I settled on just manually downloading what I want and sending to kindle. There isn't going to be a good automated setup until indexers get better for ebooks or readarr somehow adds support for irc downloads.
this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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Automated no. Maybe partially, but fairly easy to get up and running with the added bonus of being as close to “legal” as it gets. Read until the end for a more subversive option.
Libby. I cannot recommend a public library card and Libby enough. For avid readers you can probably just stop there. The loan times vary location to location, but if you are someone that reads a good amount each day you can probably get through whatever book before you have to return it.
Here’s the secret sauce tho. You can specify you’d like to read a book from Libby in a different app. This spits out an Adobe Digital Editions DRM locked book. Once opened in ADE the file is now a “normal” .epup but still time locked with DRM. Enter calibre and it’s plug-in support. My current setup is using an older version and a no longer maintained plugin, but that’s because I’m lazy and haven’t updated things. There is now a new maintainer of the project. noDRM’s DeDRM tool seems like the current standard and includes all necessary info I believe. Once you have the plug-in installed it’s simply a matter of dropping the .epub from ADE into your calibre library and then you have it forever.
As far as making this easy for you family, I would say direct them to Libby for general use, and then if they longer to read something resort to more drastic measures.
Kind of a grey area as I simply think of it as “extending” my loan while still being polite to the people waiting for the book behind me. I mean it’s not actually a grey area, like it’s not technically allowed, but I feel it’s very much in the spirit of public libraries and free access.
As far as automation goes I’m fairly confident I could write a script to get the download from Libby as I can post all the necessary requests from a command line if I want. The problem comes up with Adobe Digital Editions. This does not have any sort of command line interface as far as I know, and unlike calibre a file must be specifically imported through the GUI rather than simply dropped into a folder.
The true cheat code is z-lib, which when set up fully can be interfaced with a telegram bot that can be customized and automated all you want. In my opinion once the telegram bot is set up it’s easy enough for anyone. You put a book you’re looking for into the message box, the bot sends you search results back, tap the file you want and it sends it to you right in the chat. I use it all the time when book recommendations come up in conversation. I’ll search for it on my phone, tap the right one and have the .epub waiting for me on my ereader.
I’ve also got a system for ripping audiobooks from Libby, but it’s way more complicated and marginally more capable of being automated.
Cheers for the write up, lots of good info here
If readarr doesn't work then lazy librarian might not be better.
If you don't mind torrents checkout MyAnonaMouse (MAM). It is the place for ebooks and will integrate with your current set-up with no issues.
Readarr>MAM>qbit>readarr pushes to calibre> etc
It's unfortunately a fairly sparse space. With that said, I'm not sure how much automation benefits. Books take a very long time to read compared to watching a series/movie. It's ok to spend that little extra time to search Anna's Archive bc the time spent attaining the material vs consuming it will still be higher than just about anything else. Having scoured the space myself just recently, Anna's Archive is really the best option, with myanonymouse as great backup. usenet is honestly garbage for ebooks and music.
Also consider your local library for books (and other media I guess). I think a lot of them have some kind of deal set up for ebooks too.
Unfortunately most use Libby/Overdrive which puts DRM on the books and only lets you read through their clunky app or kindle.
There are ways to remove DRM. Maybe there is even a plugin for Calibre which does that automatically.
I joined MyAnonaMouse and there have been very very few books that I can't find, and if they don't have it you can always request it on the forums. If you don't want to go through the hassle of registering or getting an invite (DM me if you need one) I don't know if there are any book specific nzb indexers that would work.
MyanonaMouse is like going to heaven without dying for a book nerd.
It really is, if it ever went down it would feel like going back to caveman times
That would definitely be going backwards, I'm relatively new there, I've been using public torrent sites until earlier this year.
Public torrent sites will only get you so far but you can find a surprising amount of books and audiobooks on them.
I would be interested in an invite if you have an extra.
If you don't end up getting one, you can join yourself very easily.
You just have to pass a simple interview that basically exists to make sure you have read the (fairly simple) rules.
Seconding this. It's a great community. https://www.myanonamouse.net/inviteapp.php has the timeframe when they're doing new member interviews. You'll hop on their irc channel and queue up, someone will get to you eventually and confirm that you know the rules and understand how torrents work, then you'll be in business. The ratios might seem a smidge intimidating at first but you get points for seeding even if no one is downloading, so just leave all your torrents open and you'll pretty quickly end up with more points than you know what to do with.
Oh cool! That seems straightforward.
I have a lot more indexers than that, and not much better luck. You really need a private torrent tracker if you want to automate books. Every few years I look into a way to automate it more like movies & TV with just usenet and public trackers, but every few years I don't turn up much. I have Readarr running, but it rarely finds anything except the most mainstream bestseller type results. Just doing things manually with something like Anna's Archive or Libgen is really the only thing that works well. Results for comics work better, but I can't stand Mylarr's interface, so have always just manually done that too when I have the urge.