[Gormo]

I guess I just don't understand why a desktop application intended to read e-books would need a remote server in the first place.

I've already got my e-book library on my local drive, and synced to my own storage server with NextCloud -- why do I need my desktop e-reader application to force me to use a separate, parallel server solution?

And even if I were to self-host, the UI does not seem to expose any way to point the frontend client at my own server instance.

[mathgeek]

It’s designed as a platform, not specifically a reader.

> It's not just an e-book reader. With Librum, you can manage your own online library and access it from any device anytime, anywhere.

Different strokes for different folks as you seem to already have a solution to sync your own library.

[antiframe]

When I read that "can" I thought it meant it's optional. It sounds, though, like it's baked in and would require a lot of work to just read books.

[happymellon]

I couldn't find a reference to mobile devices.

Are the clients desktop only?

[DavidLazarescu]

Support for mobile devices is currently in development. The application is currently only available on Desktop, but the aim is to be available on all devices.

[mathgeek]

No idea, never used it. I would check the readme.

[j45]

It seems to replace what the kindle platform would do

Multiple users might allow that for friends and family

It’s easier to ask “ what else could this mean” in a positive way and assume that it doesn’t have to make sense to one perspective to make sense for everyone.

Calibre for example doesn’t seem to do the multi device access/sync well

[suslik]

Calibre library syncs perfectly across devices via dropbox / any other cloud storage. Can't see why this wouldn't just work with a shared cloud folder as well. This also has an added benefit that the books are available for download on mobile.

[j45]

As a light Calibre user:

- Calibre doesn't have a reader app as far as I can tell on android or iphone.

- KOReader I hear is excellent and could point to Calibre, but again, I don't think it handles per user highlights and annotations as easily.

Mostly I'm looking for a reasonably straight forward workflow to import highlights into logseq/obsidian that doesn't need a user to install or run a script manually, or connect a usb cable. That kind of self-hosting is useful.

[suslik]

Fair enough - I don't do highlights; usually I only import books into marvin (iOS reader app), so never encountered this use case.

[j45]

I have a lot of love and respect for calibre.

Since I’ve started playing around with logseq/obsidian for one point of note taking the value of having your notes and annotations from books and YouTube videos in one place is too close to making all that reading more useful and introduce it into practice :)

[Double_a_92]

That reminds me of that Dropbox discussion, where some guy said it's not worth it because he can easily replace it with some FTP server.

[latexr]

This meme needs to die and people should pay attention to the full conversation before making fun on it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

It took one clarifying comment from the founder of Dropbox for BrandonM to understand and agree with the value proposition.

The story of that comment is not “clueless power user doesn’t understand regular user needs”, it’s “user makes respectful criticism and changes their mind when confronted with compelling arguments”. That exchange is a prime example of what we should all strive to do, not a target of ridicule.

[j45]

Such perspectives can wonder why their startups are not successful and users don’t adopt them