Self-Hosting Audiobooks

Audiobooks

I enjoy listening to audiobooks. It allows me to engage with a book while I do something else. Specifically, I enjoy listening while cleaning, running, or on long car rides. I do not like having all of the books I have purchased locked behind licenses. Here is my current set up for self-hosting audiobooks.

Libation

Getting Your Titles

I found Libation a while back. It is, “a s a free, open-source application for downloading and managing your Audible audiobooks. It decrypts your library, removes DRM, and lets you own your audiobooks forever.”

It was shockingly easy to set up. I initially installed it on my Ubuntu laptop and when I add a title, I run the importer. It then delivers a DRM free version of my title

Audiobookshelf

Hosting Your Titles

Audiobookshelf pretty much Plex or Jellyfin but for audiobooks and podcasts.

They have a docker container, which I am running on my Raspberry Pi 4 for the server.

Listening To Your Titles

They also have an incredibly performant Android App (especially compared to Audible’s).

I was able to point to my Tailscale address for the audiobookshelf docker container from the app’s interface. Now I have all my audiobooks on the go without any pain. It saves my spot, has great metadata, and has features I have not even played around with.

Additionally, I set it up to capture podcasts which I want to have a personal archive of from the podcatcher interface.

Do Not Sleep on the Library

Libby

For the most part, I do not re-listen / re-read books. There is just too much out there to want to re-read. So, for the most part, I will use Libby which allows you to check out audiobooks using your local library. Unless a book is an exclusive on Audible or another server, or the library in question does not have the title, Libby is my first stop. It is a phenomenal service. Libraries are amazing.