#calibre — Public Fediverse posts

Time for a Come to Jeebus moment: I will never get along with #calibre ebook management.

It's an incredible, capable, venerable piece of software, and my partially blind ass just continuously gets gut punched by its interface hard and often enough that I spent a chunk of this evening picking apart the broken bits of 5 separate Calibre libraries I've tried to maintain over time. All failed.

So, I now have a sanely curated set of named folders on my NAS for ebooks:

./fiction
./fiction/science-fiction
./fiction/science-fiction/robert-a-heinlein
./freemasonry
./freemasonry/audiobooks
./.local
./.local/bin
./art
./art/digital
./art/digital/blender
./history
./history/manuscripts
./history/manuscripts/voynich
./history/transportation
./history/transportation/mbta
./history/espionage
./gaming
./gaming/tabletop
./gaming/tabletop/world-of-darkness
./psychology
./Desktop
./tech
./tech/emacs
./tech/processing
./tech/ai
./tech/rust
./tech/security
./tech/math
./tech/culture
./tech/culture/model-view-culture
./tech/scheme
./tech/languages
./tech/games
./tech/databases
./tech/python
./tech/python/kivy
./tech/python/Music for Geeks and Nerds
./tech/python/Music for Geeks and Nerds/tracks
./tech/python/Music for Geeks and Nerds/code
./tech/python/Music for Geeks and Nerds/code/pyknon
./tech/retro
./tech/retro/amiga
./tech/retro/atari8
./tech/infrastructure-as-code
./tech/php
./tech/lisp

I am pleased with this arrangement.

Sometimes (often?) a nicely arranged #UNIX filesystem is chefs kiss perfect!

Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-31-26

https://social.emucafe.org/naferrell/pook-emu-bee-links-for-08-31-26/

Years ago I set up a Calibre here at home. I revisited this about 2 weeks ago.

https://www.bytevortex.tech/from-calibre-and-runeaudio-to-something-better/

#Blaugust #Blaugust2026 #selfhosting #calibre #runeaudio #audiobookshelf #navidrome

(Linux news in previous posts)

FOSS NEWS

A GrapheneOS Privacy Feature Just Became the Basis for a Federal Indictment:
https://feed.itsfoss.com/link/24361/17390033/grapheneos-duress-password-indictment
(Funny how they consider him a criminal for pedophilia they can't even prove, and ignore the Epstein case with actual proofs. The elites can do anything they want, average people are always the ones being targeted...)

Mozilla Firefox 153.0.1 Web Browser Brings Fixes for Multiple Issues and Crashes:
https://9to5linux.com/mozilla-firefox-153-0-1-web-browser-brings-fixes-for-multiple-issues-and-crashes

Improved autofill for Proton Pass:
https://proton.me/blog/pass-improved-autofill

FireDragon Browser Swoops in With New Wings:
https://feed.itsfoss.com/link/24361/17388206/firedragon-v13-release

Krita 5.3.3 Drops Today, Alongside the First Stable Qt 6 Port:
https://www.linuxcompatible.org/story/krita-533-releases-today-alongside-the-first-stable-qt-6-build/

Shotcut 26.7 Video Editor Adds Graphics Adapter for Linux, Shake Video Filter:
https://9to5linux.com/shotcut-26-7-video-editor-adds-graphics-adapter-for-linux-shake-video-filter

Calibre 9.12 E-Book Manager Adds Option to Convert GIF Images to JPEG/WebP:
https://9to5linux.com/calibre-9-12-e-book-manager-adds-option-to-convert-gif-images-to-jpeg-webp

ownCloud Web 12.5.0 adds Collabora Save-As and new HTML editor:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/7/owncloud-web-12-5-0-adds-collabora-save-as-and-new-html-editor/

Linkwarden 2.16 brings modernized design, link format re-preservation and new search modal:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/7/linkwarden-2-16-brings-modernized-design-link-format-re-preservation-and-new-search-modal/

Ente Photos adds memory reactions, desktop upgrades, and curated sharing controls:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/8/ente-photos-adds-memory-reactions-desktop-upgrades-and-curated-sharing-controls/

Fooyin 0.12 adds audio conversion, 3 visualization plugins, and native PulseAudio support:
https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/7/fooyin-0-12-adds-audio-conversion-3-visualization-plugins-and-native-pulseaudio-support/
(PulseAudio support? Isn't that a bit late? I saw basically all major distros migrating to PipeWire, not sure if there are still some widely used distros using PulseAudio)

(more FOSS news in comments)

#WeeklyNews #OpenSource #FOSSNews #FOSS #OpenSourceNews #News #Firefox #GrapheneOS #ProtonPass #FireDragon #Krita #Shotcut #Calibre #ownCloudWeb #ownCloud #Linkwarden #EntePhotos #Ente #Fooyin #CloudStorage #ContentCreation #Ebook #FosseryTech

@_elena @shollyethan @yunohost @ilja Great guide, many thanks for sharing.

Years ago (pre-cloud) I used to self host at home, but as the cloud grew there became little point in this d-i-y approach. But as you say, now the cloud has become such a bad place, the d-i-y approach is back in fashion again !

I now self-host at home (again) :

• email
• photo sharing
• search
• books
• webserver
• calender
• fediverse server
• backups

I'm now looking for a docs solution, probably onlyoffice.

I've not come across yonohost before, so I'll follow with interest further parts of your series.

#docker-mailserver #immich #searxng #calibre #wordpress #baikal #fediverse #frendica #restic #u3a #onlyoffice #yonohost !u3acommunitiescomputing

🤖 W programie Calibre pojawiły się właśnie funkcje dotyczące zapytań o książki przy pomocy różnych narzędzi AI. Są one opcjonalne, choć to nie przeszkadza już niektórym protestować.

💡 Bardzo ciekawa jest możliwość skorzystania z lokalnego modelu, który mamy u siebie na komputerze i nie musimy nigdzie wgrywać książek. Dlatego przetestowałem Calibre z polskim Bielikiem.

https://swiatczytnikow.pl/w-programie-calibre-pojawily-sie-funkcje-ai-sprawdzam-jak-dzialaja-z-polskim-modelem-bielik-a-czesc-uzytkownikow-juz-protestuje/

#Calibre #Bielik #AI

So, #Amazon's decision to remove #ebook #downloads on Feb. 26th has had an effect on me that I think is a bit on the surprising side.... Not only did I downlaod all of my books this weekend, but I also downloaded (neaarly) all the books I had on the Google Play Books, and finally got #Calibre working on my system.

I have, however, encountered an odd situation with Play Books that I wonder if anyone has encountered (if anyone is actually using Play Books). The situation: a long time ago (around 10 years), I uploaded a bunch of DRM free ePubs of technical books (mostly O'Reily books) to read on my tablet... It was the easiest option at the time.

Now, however, I can't download them. Whenever I try to download them I get a 404 page from Google. The weird part: I can still open them in the reader both on the web and the Android app.

I wonder if anyone else has encountered this issue, and if they found a workaround or fix for the issue?

#read #readitnow #readersofinsta #readersofinstagram #readersunite #readersofmastodon #ereading #ereaders #ereader

New Cards for Ex Libris

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2011/11/new-cards-for-ex-libris/

Ex libris is a wonderful game. No - better than that - it's a beautiful game.

Here are the rules:

• Everyone has to write the opening line of a novel, based on the novel's summary.
• One player has the real opening line to copy down.
• One other player (the guesser) has to guess which of the opening lines is the real one.
• If you fool the guesser, you win the point. If the guesser is correct, she gets the point.

Simple and perfect. You don't need to be well read - you just need enough of an imagination to write what you think someone else will think the opening line of a novel is.

There's a minor problem - there are only a limited number of cards and none of them are very new. There's no Harry Potter, We Need To Talk About Kevin, or American Gods.

As with any game, it can get a little bit repetitive - once you've played it a dozen times it can become a bit obvious which are the real extracts from the books.

So, what's needed is a whole set of new cards.

The rules say:

Each card gives you the title, author and plot summary of a novel or short story.

The card also has the opening and closing sentence of the book.

So, for example, the new card for John le Carré's "Our Kind of Traitor" would say (SPOILER WARNING!)

Title: Our Kind Of Traitor

Author: John le Carré

Plot: A young Oxford academic and his girlfriend take a holiday to Antigua. By chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. Dima propels the young lovers on a journey to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.

Opening Line: "At seven o'clock of a Caribbean morning, on the island of Antigua, one Peregrine Makepiece, otherwise known as Perry, an all-round amateur athlete of distinction and until recently tutor in English literature at a distinguished Oxford college, played three sets of tennis against a muscular, stiff-backed, bald, brown-eyed Russian man of dignified bearing in his middle fifties called Dima."

Closing Line: "Was it sex? Was it drugs? Was it arms? For want of a shred of evidence it was none of them. Terror, the great catch-all these days, has also been considered, but rejected out of hand. No group has claimed responsibility."

Making It Happen

I was planning on writing a Calibre Plugin to automate the generation of cards from my fulsome library.It would be fairly easy to extract the author, summary, and cover image.However, finding the first line from a book is a slightly tricky matter - not to mention how you determine where the last line is.

So I think I'll stick to manually for the time being.

I think this could be a great way to revatilise a wonderful game. Only a few - non-technical - problems.

Would I face a massive lawsuit from the good folk at Oxford Games? Would the insanity of the UK's copyright laws stop me?

More importantly, would anyone be interested in this? If you're an Ex Libris player and would be interested in some new cards - please leave a comment on this post!

#books #calibre #ebooks #exLibris #NaBloPoMo