[zagadgita]

Hi all, I just wanted to post somewhere how thankful I am for this community and how friendly and easy it's use has been.

I'm a mother of four, and three of my little ones are autistic (http://www.autismspeaks.org !!) as such, they are very good at breaking, tearing, drawing on, and just generally ruining books. As a former library worker, and bibliophile married to another bibliophile we had a LOT of books.

Had.

Most of these are in tatters, missing covers, doodled in or otherwise ruined. Buying new copies just gives our little monsters new opportunities for ruination. It's tough to enjoy an book when you have to lock it up in a case every time you need to avert a crisis. And if it's reachable, they WILL reach it. Or figure out the child locks. Or just throw things until they smash open.

So, I watched many beloved, sometimes odd or hard-to-find publications got to the big recycling center in the sky. I had always been leery of ebooks, thinking them cold, mehcanical, wondering how a true lover of the written word could "cozy up" to an ebook.

Let me tell you, it's been an eye opening experience finding mobilism. I have not only found countless replacements for the many beloved tomes lost to the years of parenthood, but discovered that, ebooks are ESSENTIAL to my way of life. To be able to read on my phone, anywhere, with the knowledge that my whole library is safe in my pocket/cloud while I carry on through the hectic day, being able to stop reading any time there's a crisis, without having to worry about bookmarks, or locking away my books, is frankly, priceless. To be able to read in the dark, while sitting with one or the other kids while they fall asleep, to be able to snatch a few minutes of peace when I can find them, with all my books at my fingertips..

Well, it's awesome. And this community is awesome, and I just wanted to say; Thanks.


TLDR: Busy mom says thanks for all the books!

Big zen hugs to ALL of you!

[jaysee]

That's one of the most wonderful things I've ever read in this forum.

So much of what you read in the press about sites like this, the 'service' we provide, is often negative. Talk of money and loss of revenue and intellectual property etc etc. But what you don't often read and hear are stories like yours. The positive effect we (& other sites) have on lives that fall outside the parameter of "well it means I don't have to pay for stuff har har har".

In the "real world" I am a librarian. I'm passionate about books. I love them. I adore reading to a level that borders on weird But what I love more than anything is being able to provide a way for other people to develop and maintain their own love of reading. To help, in some small way, people escape their lives, to enrich their lives, to unlock worlds within imaginations. That's why I do what I can to make this place as good as it can be.

I'm overjoyed that you have found new books, old books... just books in general, for you and your little ones. Thank you for your kind words. It means a lot to me and I'm sure all the team here.

jay

[libertybelle]

Absolutely awe-inspiring. I have only ONE in the Autistic Spectrum, and at 24 she (finally) left home and is engaged to be married. So I can relate in a much smaller way to your hard work at raising those beautiful children. Much love and hugs ..

LB. xxx

[njtechguy]

That is very touching to read and I am glad that you were able to find a place for resources for your children.

[Weelee]

Wonderful wonderful ...so glad to hear ...from a Mum with an ADHD son, books were my haven and yes can feel the pain of losing your many paper books

I too welcomed the eBOOK and couldn't be without it now ... and when I found this site a few years ago, I was in heaven lol

You are a very welcome addition to our Mobilism family

[zagadgita]

Daw, shucks. You guys. See, friendly open and accepting. I really like this community! Consider me a permanent resident.
[break]



*edit, removed dead link images

[WordDiva]

Though I was the last to join the Moderator team, I totally agree with you, these guys doing a fab job of keeping the website and sharing all these wonderful books with so many book aficionados like me! I had stumbled upon accidentally upon the website once while searching a cookbook and have not left yet...always so happy to hear from another bibliophile...I think I was probably only kid in my school who used to love reading books even during school vacations even though we weren't assigned to read anything

Even though you are so busy with taking care if 3 little ones, you still took time to post such a lovely message which was so heartwarming to read, thank you so much zagadgita, more power to you and loads of xxxxx

[pink magnolia]

This makes me so proud to be one of the ebook moderators and to be a part of Mobilism in general, having worked with autistic and special needs children in the past I know how hard it can be at times so a massive thank you for taking the time to share this very special message with us all x

Salute to mobilism admins n team for al. Ur dedicated work

[mickey88]

Hi all, I just wanted to post somewhere how thankful I am for this community and how friendly and easy it's use has been.

I'm a mother of four, and three of my little ones are autistic (http://www.autismspeaks.org !!) as such, they are very good at breaking, tearing, drawing on, and just generally ruining books. As a former library worker, and bibliophile married to another bibliophile we had a LOT of books.

Had.

Most of these are in tatters, missing covers, doodled in or otherwise ruined. Buying new copies just gives our little monsters new opportunities for ruination. It's tough to enjoy an book when you have to lock it up in a case every time you need to avert a crisis. And if it's reachable, they WILL reach it. Or figure out the child locks. Or just throw things until they smash open.

So, I watched many beloved, sometimes odd or hard-to-find publications got to the big recycling center in the sky. I had always been leery of ebooks, thinking them cold, mehcanical, wondering how a true lover of the written word could "cozy up" to an ebook.

Let me tell you, it's been an eye opening experience finding mobilism. I have not only found countless replacements for the many beloved tomes lost to the years of parenthood, but discovered that, ebooks are ESSENTIAL to my way of life. To be able to read on my phone, anywhere, with the knowledge that my whole library is safe in my pocket/cloud while I carry on through the hectic day, being able to stop reading any time there's a crisis, without having to worry about bookmarks, or locking away my books, is frankly, priceless. To be able to read in the dark, while sitting with one or the other kids while they fall asleep, to be able to snatch a few minutes of peace when I can find them, with all my books at my fingertips..

Well, it's awesome. And this community is awesome, and I just wanted to say; Thanks.

this is the best post i have read in quite some time
TLDR: Busy mom says thanks for all the books!

Big zen hugs to ALL of you!

[pjmur]

It has all been said above but I was also smiling & nodding in agreement at this post.

I am dad to 2 boys on the autism spectrum.
My 12yo is a "true autistic" and my 7yo is autistic with ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

In this house a hard cover book is a lethal weapon!

So thank you to all at Mobilism. You have been a Godsend!

[John Player]

I have to agree. My better half is blind -- one of the worst things about being blind is the difficulty of accessing printed materials. She was already middle-aged before she was able to go the library, get a book, bring it home, and put it on the scanner, so she could even make an attempt at reading what she wanted, when she wanted.

Even the materials provided by the libraries, supposedly as part of their 'accessible' service, are a joke. The publishers forced standards like Daisy onto the consumers. She has had hardware-based daisy readers -- they are both fragile and unbelievably expensive. Even the services provided by the library for the blind are mindbogglingly wasteful. They've sent her hundreds of discs that she cannot read, because she has no working daisy reader, and that they expect returned after being read. She once inquired what they do with these returned materials, and was informed that they are "logged" as having been returned, for purposes of copyright, after which they are destroyed.

As she puts it, "Thank God for .epub!" and "Thank God for Mobilism."

[Bilbo3443]

I too thiught "real" books were only in physical form. At the suggestion of a friend, i bought a used Nook. I got hooked. Now i have a several generation old Samsung tablet. I can keep many many books on the external chip. Thanks to Mobilism, i can get the majority of my favorite authors new release the day of release.

Thanks to all the moderators and donars that make this site the best.

[Imagine_That]

I have been researching my dad's World War II experience as part of the RAF Bomber Command. I want to leave as full an account as possible by adding information about the RAF Bomber Command and the war in general to go along with it; to put it in context. My problem is the libraries I have access to have very limited selections. Also I never know what books will contain a nugget of information I will want to add so buying the books is out of the question. I have been able to find lots of books here that I could scan to see if it contains what I am looking for and they often do. I found one "treasure" that chronicled one RAF bomb aimer's day to day experience. It was like walking along side my dad and I learned so much. I am truly very thankful for that.

The same could be said for my interest in psychopathy. I am not a medical person. I do not have access to a library with lots of medical books and most of these are far too expensive for me to buy.

I have also been able to find ebook versions of hard copy books I have. Having the book in ebook format means I can search it when I am trying to find something I read and want to reference again. I read a lot of non-fiction.

Another thing that's great about Mobilism, is being to sample different authors I wouldn't normally have. I have found some new favourite authors! Usually I will then order the hard copy to have on the shelf and continue on buying their books. Once in a while, we do a purge when we start running out of room for more books. We give them to our local library or charities. It's hard giving books away. I try and replace them with an ebook to soften the pain of giving them up.

The staff here at Mobilism is excellent. Whatever the work environment is here, corporations could take lessons from it because it appears to be just the right kind. The staff is patient, helpful and seem to be enjoying themselves and I think that's is the key to a great place to work.

It’s not just the staff. Most people are very nice. And polite! How rare for a forum! A lot of that can be attributed to the way Mobilism works. It fosters that kind of environment so keep it up! At first I found all the rules a bit intimidating but I see now that it's necessary and helps keep this site running smoothly. And when I don't get the rules quite right (embarrassingly often), I am gently (lol) corrected. As I said, patient.

[pink magnolia]

This made my day and thank you so very much Imagine_That ..its truly so nice to hear that we get things right and you are happy with all we do ..I love my job as a moderator and just to know that shows is all I could ask ... as for all my fellow mods and merry ,well what a terrific bunch of people they all are and you are right we do enjoy ourselves lots ,Your really kind words mean a lot to us all..Thank you