[Booklover0425]

Financially Mostly and

I use to buy books all the time, but when my finances become less than perfect trying to afford my books become a difficult.

I am a person that can read fifty pages in one sitting put the book down, and find a new book of interest to read for a minute, then put that down and pick back the first and know exactly where I left off, and as many of you know new books get released all the time, so trying to keep up is hard. Plus some books become nonexistent or so overpriced that I lose interest.

Finding Mobilism allows me to find books in a different way that I can upload on my reader until I am ready to read. It also allow me to explore more authors that are out there. I have to sometimes ride the bus from where I live and the commute is more than an hour, and lugging two or three books along with lunch on the bus is hard. Having them all on my reader allows me to carry my stored books and read them on the way to work or on my way home from work.

I applaud Mobilism and their staff for all of the help. Also, applaud all of the nice people that are so willing to share, and have like minds about books and ebooks...

[QuietMind]

The books I want to read are often clinician manuals or textbooks - they tend to be pretty expensive, not to mention bulky. I prefer ebooks, but I don't own a kindle, so I like using sites like Mobilism to get my books. And since I know a few places to buy ebooks in epub or mobi, I am happy to contribute back to Mobilism.

Partly financial. It allows me to try out new authors but once I find one I do like, I tend to pay for their books. Another part is that if I buy a physical book, I can lend or give it to a friend to read. Ebooks don't allow that while being almost as expensive as a physical book. I don't want to hoard books and waste paper (plus reading on my tablet is easier on the commute) but not being able to share something I bought annoys me.

[harlequin8]

My reason is purely (90%) financial. I'm not in the position to buy books. I'm completely financially dependent on others. I read upwards of 120 - 150 books a year which translates into R36 000 a year for books or roughly $2600. Unfortunately I simply can't afford the books even though I feel guilty and would very much like to support my favourite authors, especially the indie authors.

The other 10% is digital hoarding, I like to complete my collections.

[Basia1971]

Financial. Books/ebooks and audiobooks (these are really expensive!) I do still buy books but rarely because I simply can't afford them. This site is great! Premium membership is a must- great investment. I'm really thankful for everyone's hard work.

Purely financial

Multiple reasons, mainly financial. I love reading, life is short, my family is mired in generational poverty, and it's faster to pirate free books and read them now than make enough money to buy all the books I want before my life is potentially snuffed out sooner than expected. Even if I did have the money to buy all the books I want, I'd spend that money on buying land out in the countryside so my family could have some small degree of socioeconomic security, with particular focus on fire safety. Because I do plan on eventually acquiring physical copies of all the ebooks I own, and books have a tendency to be flammable.

To see if I like it. If I do, I generally look for autographed special editions from the author, if they are newer books. If not, I go for regular hardcover copies. I have like 2000 books in my bedroom. I'm drowning in them

Few reasons.
To go digital and not have to re-buy all the hardback books I have. I figured I own the print book, I should have a copy in digital format, yet that's not how the publishers see it...they want you to pay again.

Frees up a lot of money on authors I never would have tried....as back when I did print books, I was a book snob and HAD to have hardcover and 1st editions...or nothing.

Now that I have a job I can't read while working, I've gone to audiobooks....and those are more expensive. Downloading from here is much more practical...especially as I still want the ebook to go along with my audiobook in case I feel like reading over the weekend.

I marked "can't buy them here" (despite internet) because that's more accurate than "financial" (implying no money) but it's really a problem with the financial system where I am. As an expat, local banks won't give me a credit card (same goes for electricity, water service, and even a cellphone in my own name). Apparently I'm too untrustworthy, not like the locals who regularly take out huge "business loans" and then use the money to leave the country forever. I've actually had off-duty police officers, working as private detectives (read: "loanshark muscle") show up at my rental looking for the previou tenant to break her kneecaps because she moved to China with $2,000,000 in loans. . . .

digital piracy is a human right

[miguel1984]

Three reason from that list: Financial reasons, the impossibility to buy some books in my country and to store good stuff in digital format, since I haven't been able to get some stuff that was online a few years back and I lost a lot of books and comics when my previous computer died on me.

No "main reason". Several reasons.
One: The price. In the past (many years ago) I asked why books were so bloody expensive. I was told it was because of printing costs and shipping costs. Also the loss from destroying unsold copies.
The fact that the cost has continued to skyrocket even though there are zero printing costs and zero shipping costs with ebooks, would seem to suggest they lied. Why would I want to give my money to a company that would lie to me?
Two: The quality. It seems that a lot of publishers can't seem to bother with basic editing anymore. I have edited some purchased ebooks and (I am not exaggerating) one of them had 915 errors. This would be even more since that number is the number of highlights I made when reading, and some of the highlights had 2 or three errors highlighted at the same time.
Three: A lot of the books I used to scan were not available in ebook format at all. Mostly older series before ebooks existed.
One company's books that we used to scan were only available in dead-tree format. They stated that they had no plans to ever release them in ebook format. After we had released a large number of ebook versions, suddenly the company clued in to the potential revenue source and finally started making ebooks as well. I guess you could say we were kind of responsible for making them more widely available to more people.
Four: Many people who used to request specific ebooks said the books were not available in their countries at all. As a book lover, I couldn't imagine not having access to the books you want to read so I did what I could to help.