I purchased 3 eBooks in the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series (2 came free) and I’m on the final book. 20 minutes left in the last book and this is what Spotify tells me.

I’m over the edge now. I’ve been putting it off too long. I have a nice NUC I purchased about a year ago.

I’m tech inclined, 20 years of hobbyism, know the linux command line well. Work in IT consulting. But I’m busy. Very busy, and unmotivated to do things like hours of research and toying with settings getting things to work, if I ever have the time.

But this is the start of my new personal revolution.

I’ll read the wiki and have read about Sonarr, etc, and I also want movies and shows, but is there anything specifically for eBooks? Looks like Readarr is my best bet? Stripping the DRM of already purchased (and free with Spotify ‘Premium’) books to share on a seedbox is also something I’m willing to take requests on. Is there a way to rip from Spotify if you have a premium account? And what’s the best Android eBook reader (the last 3-4 I tried sucked with pirated eBooks)?

I know I’m sounding like a noob asking everything to be handed to me right now, but I am willing to put in the research and welcome and highly appreciate anyone with tips to point me in the right directions.

  • krnl386@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    I have the whole series as DRM-free MP3. Let me know if you want it.

  • Chev@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Library Card

    Depends on your local library but I have for example unlimited E Books included.

    • slampisko@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’m embarrassed that I never thought of this. Sure enough, my library lends both e-books and audiobooks. It’s limited to 2-3 per month, but that’s more than I need anyway

      • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 months ago

        I saw a librarian say on a post that people should borrow from the library anyways, even if they don’t think that they’ll get to it before it’s due, because it means that they can use the higher rates of usage to argue for more funding. Getting something for free and helping the local libraries at the same time? Sounds like a win-win to me.

  • EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de
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    10 months ago

    1"Oh god! Some of our users are leaving because our service sucks now!"

    2"Should we improve our service?"

    3"Of course not! We should just make it more restrictive and raise prices!"

    2"Yeah! Raise prices to make up for lost customers!"

    1"yeah! no one will pirate anything if we just raise prices and make everything way more inconvenient!"

  • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’m all about piracy, but as another alternative, consider seeing if you can get a digital library card somewhere local or multiple and connect them to Libby to borrow books and audio books for 2 weeks at a time

  • Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    I didn’t really like readarr, it had a weird workflow and I find books to be different than series (they have longer release frequency, for example) so I’m getting them manually and importing into calibre for metadata. This way I can also check the quality of each epub because I hate finding that the book I’m going to read is badly formatted or has a weird encoding.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They even often have them streaming for free. All of my wife’s audiobooks are free streamed via the library and she listens to them every day.

  • tamal3@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Love your local library. The Lemmy app is a good way to access content.

    Also pirating… I live in the southern US, where they keep underfunding my library.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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      10 months ago

      How is it shitty in this case? That’s literally what OP bought, the right to listen to any book in Spotify’s catalog for free, for a certain number of hours. If they wanted to listen to a specific book unlimited they should have purchased that book directly.

        • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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          10 months ago

          They haven’t bought anything though. Or rather, they got exactly what they paid for, listening time.

          I’m pretty sure this is a concept OP must’ve seen before, they can’t be that clueless. If you borrow a book from the library you don’t own it, and you have to be done with it by the time it’s due.

          At this point I’m not sure if they’re just new to audiobooks or if they’re misrepresenting Spotify’s time-limited plans on purpose.

          • WallEx@feddit.de
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            10 months ago

            They baught 3 audiobooks and premium … But sure, shill for spotify.

            • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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              10 months ago

              They bought one book, the others were free with time limit.

              If Spotify misrepresented the free books or was unclear about what they represent then by all means, they should be called out. But it’s a bit different from what OP has complained about.

                • Jako301@feddit.de
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                  10 months ago

                  Premium is pretty much only for music, the audio book part is more like a free demo. Including them in the normal premium sub is unsustainable.

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Why does anyone use shitify

      Virtually every single song in the world in your pocket for a little over 10 euros a month doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. Then again why does anyone use spotify for anything other than listening to music, there your guess is as good as mine.

        • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Oh, my apologies for being a mere mortal with a taste for mainstream mediocrity. Clearly, my lack of access to the obscure, avant-garde, underground artists you champion is a tragic oversight. I’ll just be over here enjoying my basic playlist, blissfully unaware of the elevated musical tastes reserved for the chosen few like yourself. Carry on enlightening us, oh connoisseur of the esoteric.

          • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I saw some avant garde shit the other day, and there it was on spotify. Everyone is on spotify

            Honestly, like… who isn’t on spotify? I think Metallica was holding out, but there on there now, and looks like Garth Brooks is also holding out. No one else I’ve ever looked up, including very small artists, were not on spotify.

        • Mo5560@feddit.de
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          10 months ago

          I hate Spotify (I have to preface with this sentence)

          But plenty of artists these days don’t bother releasing CDs and MP3s and you can legitimately only stream their songs.

          I know small artists who were unable to send me the files of their own songs when I asked them. They just sent me a YouTube link and told me to listen there.

  • mvirts@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Don’t panic. You’ve come to the right place. Spread out your towel and lay on it for a nice nap while you wait for lemmings to reply.