I converted my old laptop into a self-hosted e-reader

Lots of us may have old and dated tech lying around at home. Instead of letting them occupy space in the closet, it's best to repurpose them into something useful. That's exactly what I thought of when I found my dad's old laptop in the drawer. Ideally, I would have considered converting it into a home server or even the base for a home lab. But since it was my dad's laptop, I thought of restoring it in a way that he finds useful. He's an avid reader and has been eyeing a Kindle for the longest time. That made me wonder — what if I convert his old laptop into an e-reader, so he can download as many books as he wants and read them on a large display?

I was sure he would find the large 15-inch display a lot easier to read on compared to a tiny Kindle. Moreover, he only reads at home, so he didn't need anything particularly portable. So, I started hunting for a relevant solution. After digging around for a bit, I chanced upon Kavita — a self-hosted digital library that not only lets you store your e-books, but also has a built-in reader that even supports Manga! I decided to give it a shot to see how it compared to the more popular option, Calibre. Safe to say, my dad loves his new makeshift Kindle! Here's everything I found particularly impressive about Kavita.

Stunning UI across the board

Extremely well-designed

While you can install a copy of the Kavita app on your computer if you're running it on Windows, macOS, or Linux, I decided to host it on my home network using Docker. You can decide what's ideal for you and go ahead with the relevant method. Either way, Kavita is only accessible as a browser app via http://localhost:5000/. Once you jump onto the login screen, you'll immediately notice how beautifully Kavita has been designed. It's easily among the best self-hosted apps I've used in terms of aesthetics. Logging in takes you to your library, where again, Kavita impressed me with its UI. It looks like a polished e-reader with the cover of all your books displayed on a shelf.

There's a progress bar below each book, just like you would see on a Kindle. Clicking on a book opens it in the built-in reader. Note that your books need to be in EPUB2, EPUB3, or PDF formats. If it's a Manga or a comic book, it needs to be imported as a ZIP, RAR, RAR5, CBR, CBZ, CB7, CBT, TAR.GZ, or 7ZIP/7Z file. That's quite a wide variety of supported formats. Speaking of the built-in reader, it's quite basic with a few handy options. You can choose the layout of the book, switch between light and dark modes, select the scrolling direction, etc. I found the split layout with the ability to read two pages at once, the most convenient on a laptop screen.

A host of useful features

Cross-platform and fast

If you've added multiple volumes of a comic to Kavita, clicking on the cover in your library takes you to a fresh page where you can see all the volumes, the different issues, your reading progress, and other details about the book, like the time required to complete it, a summary of the series, the total number of pages, etc. Here, too, the UI is absolutely beautiful. Even if it didn't have a lot of features compared to the competition, I would recommend giving Kavita a go just to appreciate how good the UI is.

Heading to the Preferences section, you'll see that there are lots of settings that you can change to customize the reading experience as per your requirements. Everything from the layout to the scaling to the font size can be altered. Kavita also has an extensive search function that I loved using. It quickly indexes the results and can even search chapters and files for relevant results. The best part about self-hosting an e-reader is that you can run it offline on the local network. This means no distractions at all when reading.

Carry your library wherever you go

Unlike using a Kindle, a self-hosted e-reader like this allows you to store all your books on your home server in the form of PDFs, EPUBs, and several other formats. This way, you can create an offline library that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Kavita is also one of the few e-reader apps that has support for comics and Manga. Combined with excellent visuals, these features make Kavita a must-have if you're a bibliophile. Additionally, you can also subscribe to Kavita+ for more premium features such as external reviews, recommendations, external metadata downloading, etc. Or, just stick to the free version like I did. Installing Kavita on my dad's laptop ended up being the perfect Father's Day gift for him!