How to start a home library
Recently, I have been working on my home library.
I appreciate the physical things in life, but books is one place I make a trade-off. A physical books is amazing. It allows you to take notes, gift it to a significant other, and show it off, but it is not the most efficient way for me to read. I tend to believe whatever gets you to do something is the best. For me, that is a Kobo E-Reader. I am not sure the exact weight, but this feels like it is weightless.
To start a home library, the first thing you should do is get a dedicated server. For me, this is a 2013 iMac my Mom thought was too slow. I replaced the SSD and am running Arch on it. You can really use anything that you are okay with keeping on (though that is not even important).
Next, spin up Calibre-Web. Always opt for docker.
Now that you have the libraries building, you need to fill it with books. I HIGHLY recommend starting with https://standardebooks.org/ . This website has >1k very high-quality, and most importantly, standardized ebooks. While you can write a quick script to download all of these books, spending $15 will get you the total package. This is tax deductible and it supports the cause.
Now you just have to convert these to Calibre-Web shelved books. With a Kobo E-Reader I am able to set this Calibre-Web instance as my on-device library. When I am connected to the Wifi it syncs and will download any book I queue up.
The specifics of the implementation of this are simple with Gemini. I have gotten a lot of use from it so far.