Technically Speaking

So I have two updates from the technological front.

The first is: I've joined the 21st century twitter! That's right, I finally did it. I'm so far behind the times, lame. But hey, at least I've caught up now. So find me, follow me, tweet me, whatever all the kids are doing these days: @kloughman. My self-esteem will thank you. I'm liking the whole twitter thing, mostly because I can simultaneously post to it and FB at the same time (multi-tasking!). Any tips on fun folk to follow?

My second technological breakthrough to announce is...... Guess who got a Kindle for Mother's Day!

Now, this is huge for many reasons, the biggest being that I have been a rather outspoken opponent of digital readers in any format for a while now. See, for me reading is all about the book. The actual book. With an actual cover by which to judge it. I like owning books. I like showcasing them on my shelves so that other people can see what good taste I have.

And with digital readers, you don't get any of that. You can't snootily hold your reader in front of your face on a plane so everyone will see that you're reading the latest obscure-but-soon-to-be best seller. You can't set your reader on your bookshelf in an artsy display.

But the other day I had a light bulb moment. For our next book club pick, we chose Big Fish (movie tie-in): A Novel of Mythic Proportions. Alas, my library doesn't have it. The library in the next county over (of which I still hold a library card) only had one copy and I was third on the wait list with less than three weeks to get it read. I was annoyed. Wouldn't it be nice, I thought to myself, if someone would invent a device that would let you instantly search for and procure a book without the hassles of driving to a library or sitting on a wait list?

So in that instant, I reversed my entire position on digital readers and decided I wanted a Kindle. And Matt was happy to get me one for Mother's Day. Funny story, though. When he ordered it from Amazon, the site somehow defaulted to our ancient Texas address when it shipped the device. So my Kindle ended up at our old apartment last week and only just arrived today. Amazon was actually very nice about the entire thing.

I'm just now starting to explore (in fact, this post is about to end so I can go back to playing with my new toy) but so far I am loving it. The digital ink it uses is very cool. I love finding free books (hello Jane Austen collection!) and I'm told I can share books with other Kindle users. So... anyone out there got a Kindle? Anyone?