The integration launches in June and will automatically sync progress with the reading platform.
For the self-hosters among us:
calibre-web-automated and grimmory are two examples of self-hosted ebook management platforms that integrate with the Kobo ereader very nicely.
I’m sure there are other FOSS solutions as well out there, whom integrate with the Kobo ereader.
I’m getting more and more convinced to buy an ereader from this company.
Also, can I upload my own books via wifi?
Not directly. I upload to Dropbox and can download from there.
I will report that I have not tried uploading books via WiFi to my kobo, but I have had such simple and straightforward success by plugging the kobo into a laptop and simply dropping book files onto it like an external drive. Kobo handles the rest
You can do this over hotspot, but it’s not as convenient as just dropping it in GDrive
Never tried via WiFi, I just use calibre. But you probably can, it’s rich with features.
I might be asking too much of a random guy, but if you own a kobo, can you pls check if such a feature exists?
I use calibre web for this. It is a bit funky to setup though depending on your level of experience. Here’s a guide to look over https://jccpalmer.com/posts/setting-up-kobo-sync-with-calibre-web/
Ugh calibre is really just so ass
10/10 features
0/10 UX
Sorry, I no longer own one. Had one a few years ago tho and was very happy with it. I used to mostly sideload books via calibre through a cable connection but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t feasible via WiFi. IIRC I put an android launcher on it so was also able to use the browser to download directly from various free books sites.
I would never let mine online, but still that does sound neat.
will this work for sideloaded books from calibre?
Likely not, only for registered books (Koo/Overdrive).
Nice 👌🏻 Kobo readers are great, and will now be greaterer 😁
Amazon should never been allowed to buy Goodreads.
Amazon should not be able lock authors into exclusivity contracts with Kindle Unlimited either, but who’s gonna stop them?
My wife lost her amazon account (with all her ebooks) twice and she still buys ebooks there. I managed to import a Kobo from Paraguay to try and get her off the hook but it only worked for like 3 months as almost everything is amazon exclusive these days.
(both times she lost the accounts for disputing credit card charges that were not tied to her account)
You should check out Anna’s Archive you can download whatever from there and upload it to her kindle using Calibre. Just make sure to use the links from Wikipedia for Anna’s Archive.
I was never a heavy GR user because it felt like homework for reading, but I used to really enjoy reading user reviews on books I particularly disliked. Some of the reviews were more well written than the thing being reviewed. It makes me so upset that amazon is now profiting off of the dedication of the GR community.
Idk, I’ve run into several garbage audiobooks (garbage from the writing) that are reviewed highly on Goodreads
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Story graph, where the article is about?
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And then some other evil corporation buys story graph and we are back to square one, instead of building these proprietary integrations why don’t companies just build open systems and people can setup the integrations on their own. If you read ebooks on windows Microsoft doesn’t have to build a direct integration with some book tracking website, because a computer isn’t a locked down hardware device, it’s a open platform that gives the user the freedom to do whatever they want. In 2026 most devices should be running open platforms.
Kobos are already owned by a giant megacorp, but because it’s Japanese most of the west hasn’t heard of it
Kobos are just running Linux, albeit somewhat stripped down. You can run open source software on them just fine.
“why don’t companies” Profitable open source making corps exist):
Red hat anyone?
I have been using Storygraph for about 4 years and I love it. It has so many good filters and options when you are looking for a book to read. Even the automatic recommendation engine is pretty good. I picked up quite a few books from there. I have never done that on goodreads.
Only thing I am missing from Goodreads are Author’s pages. When you click on an author’s name on Storygraph, it just shows you their name and all their books in infinite scroll and in random order. Not even chronologically or alphabetically sorted, or even by series. No, nothing and you can’t change that. There is no photo of an author or their bio either.
I really hope they view change that.
I don’t like the website design much; feels like it runs on Electron or something, just not as snappy as the good old CSS of Goodreads. And their choice to implement AI stuff is annoying. But I’m happy they can be real competition for Amazon.
Yeah the author pages need work, as do the reviews/social aspect.
I completely forgot that there is some AI stuff on storygraph, because you can easily turn it off in settings and then you will never see it again. But I get what you mean.
I would love to have https://joinbookwyrm.com/ capability. That would be fun. You finish a book, and bookwyrm would auto tell you were finished. Give users the option to post about it.
For those interested in bookwyrm, the main instance is really slow. The second biggest English instance is invite only, and I’ve been waiting a week and the owner still hasn’t responded.
The rambling readers instance seems to be three way to go.
Yeah - I’ve been burned so often by companies entshittifying their product that I simply stopped using new commercial services. I mean - if I start using Storygraph, their goal is to annoy me as much as possible until I buy their $50/year subscription. The fediverse is so awesome because it it the opposite of that.
Bookwyrm looks really neat. Thanks for mentioning it.
That would be cool! I have an instance and same when I used Goodreads, to track reads and check some reviews. And also the want to read.
Where do people who use kobo readers buy their ebooks? Is there a reliable non Amazon e-reader shop that sells from free books? (Besides humble store)
Kobo has it’s own ebook store, plus it connects with Overdrive (outdated version of Libby) to handle library checkouts.
Kobo is also really easy to sideload books on to, so you can, you know, just get them from wherever…
I’m personally a fan of buying a physical copy, and acquiring a digital copy.
My friend Anna was telling me about some Archive or something she found online. I wasn’t really paying attention as they were serving dinner.
who cares about your friend? stop bringing her up! … but yes, I too use her book recommendations with my kobo + caliber
I’ve started using it due to some recommendation from other people on here (as opposed to z-lib, libgen) and noticed there are quite a few low-quality books that sneak in. We’re talking broken TOC, bad OCR, unclosed spans, etc… It’s obviously great as an archive, it has more than any other site, combined. But I can’t see myself using it for most books anymore. Could be a user issue though.
what other sites do you recommend? I’ve had similar issues and my ereader is really picky with formatting
I’ve just been using z-lib directly (also accessible theough anna’s I believe). I also use a calibre script to try and fix as many issues aa possible and have consistent formatting (eg. generate the TOC instead of using the one that comes with the book).
To expand on this a tad: Calibre allows you to manage your digital library. And Calibre-Web allows you to access an existing Calibre database via your e-reader. Once it’s set up, your Kobo can download books directly from your Calibre instance.
There are a few good ebook stores that offer DRM-free versions of ebooks, which you can add to your Calibre instance. Or Calibre has an (unofficial, not technically supported) extension that will automatically strip DRM from files when you add them.
wink
Oo,hey, hehe…
Oh, the books! You were winking about the- Yep, got it now.
standardebooks.org is a great place for classics
I appreciate the heck out of the Gutenberg project but holy crap they need to invest some resources into putting 1/5 of the amount of effort Standard Ebooks puts into making every single one of their releases look and function so well in the real ebook reading scenarios of actual people
Honestly if the Gutenberg project had such a program for improving the formatting of their collection I would actually strongly consider volunteering some time towards it. Just like how I would not mind reading for Librivox
Project Gutenberg has around 50 times more than Standard Ebooks (~75 000 vs. ~1 400) and in a lot of different languages, Standard Ebooks only cares about English. Putting only 1/5 of the amount of work into it would be a drop in the bucket.
Edit: In general I agree, it’s hard to figure out how to contribute to Project Gutenberg.
I bet the top ten percent of titles on Gutenberg make up 90% of downloads.
My thinking was they need to do a project like Wikimedia’s Wiki Loves Momuments, where you put some banners up for a month out of the year, see if you can get donors to put up some money to reward people who do a good job at cleaning up some of the texts they have, and just make it an event about it to try to draw in new contributors, and of course some might end up sticking around after the event and continue contributing
They have a lot of DRM-free options and let you download a clean epub, but like with other stores, it’s up to the publishers whether (and/or when) they can sell them without DRM BS.
I like being able to download the epubs directly so I can put them on my Calibre-web instance and pull them to my Kobo or my phone or whatever I want to read on.
wow thanks, these are super cheap!
Assuming you meant drm free books
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/drm-free
Not every book on kobo is drm free from what I remember so keep an eye on that
If you’re up for self-hosting, you can also use something like Calibre-Web or Stump, they have Kobo Sync support AFAIK. I just use OPDS with KOReader though
My boyfriend has a Kobo, and he has an integration with his library that allows him to borrow ebooks.
I’d have to ask him how it works exactly, but it sounds pretty convenient.It’s through Overdrive, a service that lends books to library patrons. Overdrive’s current interface for mobile devices and browsers is known as Libby. At one point in time, both Kobo and Overdrive was owned by the same company.
Note, libraries only offer a small selection - the selection mine offers is a lot different from the library up the street from me. It’s all curated from organization to organization.
Edit: Overdrive also operates Kanopy, a library video streaming app; as well as Sora, an K-12 reading app.
Worth noting that if you’re in the US, your state likely has a statewide library as well. For instance, in Texas, the Houston Public Library gets a special grant to offer ebooks to the entire state. So anyone with a Texas address can sign up for free. Most states have similar programs.
Someone should make a youtube sketch where a woman keeps getting suspicious of her boyfriend cheating on her.
And the bf IS being secretive, and dismissive. The girlfriend isn’t being paranoid, or crazy. The boyfriend IS giving her legit reason to think he’s hiding something. Every Tuesday he won’t return calls. Gets dodgy about asking where he was. So she decides to follow him.
And when she follows him turns out he goes over to a guys house. And then, men and women keep showing up. Gotta be 30 people in this house. So now she’s thinking her boyfriend is doing sex cult shit. Like in eyes wide shut.
So when she finally breaks down the door, and goes in, turns out he’s just in an ereader book club of the month. They all read the same book, at the same pace. And then discuss.
So when she asked him what he was doing those days, he told her that “she wouldn’t understand”, he just meant that she was illiterate and wouldn’t understand reading. And when she asked where he went, and he said “It’s a secret”, that’s just the name of their book club. And when she asked who’s perfume she smells on his jacket, he said “That’s just Julie. I eat her pie, while staring at her rack.” He just meant she brings baked goods for all the book club members, and they look at the book rack for the next book the club will read.
And then when she’s finally relieved, and all the confusion has been sorted, she asks if she can join the book club. So he says “You can…but I don’t know if you’re the type of girl who would want to participate in the late night post book reading orgys.”
for that amount of set up I should have expected the punchline
By preference (at least for me):
- Buy outright (AKA online stores like https://www.baen.com/). No DRM ebooks are great.
- Buy from authors website or sometimes patreon.
- Calibre + digital library download. My local library has an app, and you can just get the book and then sideload.
- Yoho if I cant find it elsewhere.
I try really hard to give authors money in some way…but sometimes Yoho is all you got if they have an amazon exclusive contract.
Its been 14+ years with this combo and I cant say I have ever had issues getting books.
You can buy ebooks on your reader from the Kobo store. I have a Kobo with the “plus” subscription which allows you to rent certain books too.
How has Kobo Plus been for you so far?
The biggest problem I have with Kobo isn’t even really something that’s their fault or that they can do anything about. Amazon through their Amazon Unlimited program has locked a bunch of major authors into exclusivity contracts where they’re contractually barred from distributing their ebooks on other platforms. That in turn means a bunch of major authors are just completely unavailable anywhere but Amazon, and of course Amazon ebooks exclusively only work on Kindle devices. It’s a vicious feedback loop where authors refuse to leave Amazon because it’s the market dominator by a large margin and consumers refuse to use anything else because all the authors are only on Amazon.
If you can make do with non-Amazon sources of ebooks it’s great to do so and we really need more people doing exactly that in order to convince authors that the Amazon shackles aren’t worth it, but it’s definitely a struggle sometimes.
If an author is Amazon exclusive I don’t feel bad getting the book from other sources, and just put it on my Kobo.
If I want to support them, I will buy the book either as a physical book or on Amazon, and read the otherly-acquired book on my Kobo anyway.
I ran into this exclusivity thing and sent a message to the author. He promptly gave me a copy of his book (since he is prohibited from selling it to me). So I sent him a tip on ko-fi for the amount of the book.
No promises every author will do this, but it went pretty well for me.
This is definitely where a 3rd party comes into play. I buy lots of books, but if you want to be difficult there’s always an alternative way.
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DRM ebooks are less of an issue unlike other forms of media because it’s extremely easy to convert to an open format, as long as you have access to the ebook file.
You only need to install Calibre and an add-on for it to remove DRM, which you will need to search for on the web as it’s not baked into calibre for what I hope are obvious reasons
All except for Amazon. You need to have access to your Kindle Serial ID. If you don’t have it, or deleted your Amazon account like I did, you’re SOL.
Unless there’s another way to De-DRM Amazon books thru Calibre that I don’t know about.
Best best I’d guess is OCR?
Used to be easiest on kindle until just a year or 2 ago too.
I’m not a kobo owner, but I’ve bought multiple hundreds of dollars of fully legal ebooks off Humble Bundle. Some of these collections are actually sourced through the Kobo ebook store for the backend delivery. Other collections are non-DRM epubs. I’m currently reading through the Martha Wells collection (Murderbot, Ile-Rien series). It was $18 for 14 of her novels/novellas. Prior to that was a collection of Hugh Howey (Dust, Sand) and Neil Stephenson (Seveneves) There’s currently a Robert Silverberg collection of 32 books for $18 I’ll probably pick up.
Oh crap I forgot humble bundle does ebooks! I’d dismissed it as soon as I saw it was a thing as I can’t stand reading ebooks on a phone or computer. So now that I have a kobo Humble Bundle is an option again!
I just load PDFs and what not directly onto mine. Project Gutenberg has tons of free ebooks.
Overdrive is cool too.
As others have said, it integrates with your local library. It works pretty flawlessly
Yaasssss love Storygraph and Kobo!
This is awesome. I’m glad I bought Kobo.
