Guys, OP is asking for recommendations for books about self-hosting, not recommendations on how to self-host books.
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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It's ok. A hard left was made a long time ago, so I just went with it. LOL
Got it. Never even thought about looking into books when I was getting into the hobby. It was all just searching and following online guides. I am curious if there's anything out there other than the typical linux/networking stuff.
There are a few that I've managed to see that specifically deal with selfhosting and homelabs:
- The Proxmox Homelab Bible: The Ultimate Homelab Guide to Virtualization, Self-Hosting, and DIY Cloud Power
- Automating the Homelab with Ansible, Terraform & SaltStack : A Beginner’s Guide to Smart Servers, Raspberry Pi Projects
- The Complete Homelab Bible: Learn how to Build, Automate and Master Personal and Professional IT Labs ; Virtualization, Networking, Storage, Containers, Automation, Security and Real-World
I find reading far better for me, than watching a video tutorial.
I don't have any books in particular to recommend, but with homelab'ing we should be learning about the command line of our OS(Powershell, terminal(bash, zsh)).
Learning the ins and outs of something like bash, cron, environment variables, for loops, systemd services(managing, creating your own), command line networking...all things I've had to learn to either setup, manage, and/or troubleshoot my homelab.
So maybe basic Linux command line books? Probably O'Reilly has some along with bash.
Speaking of O'Reilly, I've often wondered about their book cover art. Usually it's some type of animal.
My god man, I need to add that site to my list. I don't need it as I've been homelabing for many years, also support a SaaS app to keep me sharp.
But that site should be everywhere
I just stumbled upon it one day and thought that it was worth a bookmark for someone who may ask introductory questions about getting into Linux and selfhosting. I have no clue as to it's origins, but I went down through the list and there are some valuable information being presented. Spread it around.
I use calibre to organize then i dump them into calibre-web. From there we make shelves (my wife and I) and sync with our Kobos.
Yeah, I settled on Calibre Web, which is not quite as ugly as Calibre Desktop with the themepark addon.
Before you get too far into it, check out booklore and calibre-web-automated. Just to see if ya wanna go a different way. I plan on probably switching the next time we upgrade e-reader or i have to factory wipe them. Redoing on the calibre side and just resyncing got messy fast and wife approval went way way down.
I'll check those out. At the most, I guess I'd have to re-import the books if the db isn't the right format.
I think my issue was that the shelves are just number based so remaking a shelf isn't the same as the original. Def operator error. Sync still worked fine it just removed books from the shelf but stayed on the device.
I'm using Calibre web to organise books, convert format and download metadata; and then use Kavita to read my books/comics. Works great.
Theme park add on? Tell me more!
ThemePark is a docker container that has a multitude of themes for many different applications. To add the theme for Calibre, you'll access Settings and then Edit Basic Configuration, and insert 'theme-park.dev' in the 'Trusted Hosts' slot, thusly"
That gives you a more pleasing asthetic to Calibre: theme
ETA: List of supported apps: https://docs.theme-park.dev/themes/sonarr/
I don’t use calibre web yet. I only use calibre’s inbuilt web service thing. Does theme park work with that too?
Also, I have calibre running on windows and I don’t run docker on that (for reasons). So can I use calibre web on a separate system on the network and have it connect to the calibre db somehow over the wire?
Does theme park work with that too?
TBH, I am not sure. I think you'd have to consult with both ThemePark and Calibre docs.
So can I use calibre web on a separate system on the network and have it connect to the calibre db somehow over the wire?
Strike two for me. I'm sorry...I just don't know because I've never tried to do that.
I set it up last night. Network share would be too easy to corrupt apparently, so I hustled copied over the files and started fresh. Once in a while, I’ll move files back to my “original” install.
Most of the books I read are docs on all the fuggin homelab devices & services...wish I had time to read books at this point.
I save most of my reading material for when I'm laying in bed. Usually takes me about an hour to wind down so might as well make good use of the time.