How I self-host my ebooks and audiobooks

This is the companion to I own my books, where I made the case for stripping DRM and actually owning what I buy. This post is the machinery overview: how I store, serve, and read all of it from my own homelab. My books workflow # When I find a book I want to buy, I go to eBooks.com and search for it. They have most titles, but occasionally I will have to go to Kobo to find it; regardless, I purchase the book. Note: This is just an overview of how this works and is not a technical, step-by-step walk-thru. Calibre # If the book has DRM, the distributor gives me a file with the .acsm extension. If the book is DRM free, then they hand me the ePUB file directly. Either way, the next step is to import the downloaded file into Calibre. With the right plug-ins, Calibre will automatically download the book, remove the DRM (if any) and add the ePUB file to the Calibre books library. Syncthing # Once the book is in Calibre as a DRM-free ePUB, Syncthing syncs it to one of my homelab instances…