Calibre. Without a shadow of a doubt out favorite cross platform ebook management application, is once again the topic of conversation for today. For whoever came up with the idea that ebooks should and could be managed through iTunes .. should be shot, brought back to life, shot again, cremated and have his/her ashes scattered on piles of horse shit. Managing your eBook collection in Calibre on the other hand is a bundle of joy. Ordering and cataloging your books, adding keywords, sorting them around AND converting them to your favorite format .. is exactly what Calibre is good at. So what gives ? Well , imagine you and your favorite ebook reader are out and about on the road ? What if you would like to grab that copy of the Twilight Saga you have stored on your computer at home ? Is there no hope ? Sure there is ! Calibre comes with a built in webserver that lets you acces your ebook directory via a browser .. exactly what you want .. is it not ? “Hotdiggedy YeS” I hear you scream .. but what if you don’t have access to a browser ? (or are in the inability to transfer the downloaded files to your favorite reading app ?) Are you lost ? Should you revert to reading the cerealbox for all eternity ? No ! Enter ODPS : A standard for interacting with ebooks libraries.
How does it work ?
- Make sure you have installed calibre on your machine (Duh)
- Enable the Calibre web service and make sure to enter a username / password. (you don’t want the entire world to know you read my-little-pony cartoons )
- Open up the correct ports on your router (if you want to access this from the outside)
- Pick up an ebook reader app on your IOS or Android device that is able to open OPDS libraries.
- Setup your home calibre library in the apps OPDS preferences.
- Access your ebooks from anywhere.
What do you need ?
- One copy of Calibre.
- On IOS an OPDS compatible ebook application Shubook
- On Android you might want to use FBREADER
- Connect to your Calibre library via the correct url : http://yourcalibreip:8080/opds
- Setup OPDF on Calibre.
- Connect Shubooks to Calibre.
- Connect Fbreader to Calibre (automatically with the addon)