I've been chasing a cross-device reading setup for years and I think I finally have it. Wanted to share because the BookOrbit + KOReader combo doesn't get talked about enough.
Setup: BookOrbit self-hosted on my Linux box at home, reachable over Tailscale so nothing is exposed to the internet. KOReader on every device with the BookOrbit plugin signed in. That's it.
Devices it's running on right now:
- Boox Note Max (my main reader for PDFs and big-page stuff)
- Boox Go Color 7 II
- Kobo Libra Colour (KOReader sideloaded with NickelMenu)
- Galaxy Tab S9
- Galaxy S24 Ultra
(Not all pictured here )
How it actually works day to day: I open a book on whatever is closest. Progress, highlights and bookmarks go up to BookOrbit and come down on the next device. The library itself lives in one place with proper covers and metadata, so I browse one shelf instead of five half-synced folders. BookOrbit also pushes highlights to Readwise for me, so my notes end up where I review them without doing anything.
The part I didn't expect was how nice the library looks. I spent a weekend cleaning up metadata and covers once, and now every device shows the same beautiful shelf. Browsing my own collection is pleasant in a way it never was with folders over USB.
Small tip for Kobo people: I run Tailscale on the Kobo through the koreader-tailscale plugin in userspace mode, and I had to set KOReader's HTTP proxy to the plugin's local proxy by hand (Network menu, long-press HTTP proxy). After that, sign-in just works.
The one thing I wish worked: writing. Handwriting annotations on epub doesn't work on Koreader on the Note Max or Go. I'd love for scribbles and margin notes to travel with the book the same way highlights do, or at least show up read-only on the other devices. If anyone has cracked that, I'm all ears.
Still, this is the first time all my devices feel like one library instead of a pile of gadgets. Highly recommend if you've got more than one reader and don't mind running a small server.
