Confessions of a Kindle-loving technofaux

For newcomers: Rochelle is a librarian in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and writes the lively Tinfoil and Raccoon blog. Related: The Kindle vs. a rotated laptop for e-booking, in librarian Steve Lawson‘s blog. – D.R.

Michael Stephens wonders if my fondness for Kindle (despite its uselessness for libraries) could be characterized as “technolust.” I chewed on this for awhile and came to the conclusion that I need to come out of the closet as kind of a technodud. I think I may be a bit ahead of the curve, measured against all of LibraryLand, and a bit more ahead compared to library users but am definitely on the uphill side of the curve compared to my fellow bloggers.

Basically, my interest in the Kindle, and my occasional forays into e-book reviewing have had very little to do with technology and everything to do with my steamy relationship with the written word. I’m still very hopeful for an excellent e-reading experience in my lifetime. I love to read and I love to write. I came to blogging not because it was a new tech app, but because it gave me an easy way to start writing again. I don’t love gadgets. I don’t exactly hate gadgets. The most charitable thing I can say is that I am gadget-neutral and tech tepid. I present you with the evidence:

• I have a ridiculous cell phone. It’s a Pocket PC that has baby versions of Windows and Office. Mr. Raccoon, goddess bless him, is frequently giving me new software apps in an ongoing attempt to make my phone more than a deluxe Solitaire machine. Basically, I use the phone to visit Twitter, Gmail and weather.gov, to take kinda crappy pictures when I don’t have a real camera, and to play Scrabble, Bubble Breaker or Solitaire when I’m stuck some place and forgot to bring a book. I don’t sync it to anything. When I do remember to carry it, the ringer is always off in public.

• Despite being an early booster for gaming in libraries, I’m not a gamer. A lot of games make me carsick. Seriously! The Raccoons, Jr. have tried to get me interested in the DS, but I just don’t enjoy gaming. This is not tech-specific, though. I don’t like playing cards and I’ve never been much of a board game player (well, except Scrabble). I did kind of like those old school text-based games I remember from my 386. “You are in a brick dungeon. There are two exits. One exits west. The other exits south.”
• I never did learn how to program my VCR. Seriously!
• The biggest TV in my house is 19″. And there’s nothing flat about it.
• I’ve never taken to online voice chat, especially when there are more than two chatters, and I don’t go out of my way to listen to podcasts.
• I haven’t had a boom box or stereo for a few years. Just today I realized that my DVD player, which is hooked up to some most excellent speakers, plays CDs. So, now I have a stereo. Juniorette guffawed when I shared my discovery. “You didn’t know that?!”
• I don’t have an iPod or mp3 player. I think my phone-on-steroids can serve as an mp3, but have never cared enough to put music on it.

If you can present me with a tool that is truly useful to me or to my patrons, I’ll have a go at it. I’m not tech-averse, and I can be sporting and adventurous when presented with something beyond my immediate grasp. I’ve gapped my own spark plugs, and have even looked under the hood of a PC to install memory. So, what tech tools do I use and value? Twitter, Meebo, Gmail suite, Bloglines, Typepad. If someone gave me a Kindle or a Sony Reader, I’d be most grateful. What I love about all these apps is that they are all about readin’and writin’. Now that’s hot, Mr. Stephens!