Sorry library folks, I wanna Kindle

I want you library fans out there to know I love you, I love the library, I support you. I will vote for your levy later this year (Vote people! Yes for libraries!) if they will let me (actually I don't think dogs are allowed to vote, but I will make sure my people do). I love books and I love libraries, and library people are my favorite kind of people, so please forgive me for what I'm about to say...

I found the most wonderful thing that I want, and it may be the end of books (and free content) for us. It's called the Amazon Kindle (don't ask me why) and it's an ebook reader that looks like the answer to my prayers. It's like an iPug for books. I can't believe that I missed hearing about it till now - it's been out about a month. It's one of those love it or hate it items, and it has a long way to go before it's as good (or pretty) as the iPug, but even at a ridiculous $400 I WANT IT!

It reads much easier than a computer screen, it bookmarks, it searches, it has a dictionary, it backs up your books online, and you can even get some blogs (not mine, sorry), magazines and newspapers on it, as well as lots of books. And it's wireless! I hate wires. Wires catch my tennis balls and toys and won't give them back, and then I have to cry for someone with hands to retrieve them for me.

Now you know my family is cheap, right? My cushion won't even shell out 99 cents for music for my iPug. But she's as gung-ho for the kindle as I am. She doesn't like to have lots of stuff around that she's not using any more. Even books (she gives her books to the library - what a good idea!). So she can buy tons of books on the kindle, and only have that one little device (smaller than a paperback they say) instead of all those shelves of books. And it's cheaper than that macbook we've been lusting after. You can even do some basic kind of googling on it.

And the best thing is that once we have a kindle my cushion will still sit on the couch and keep me company. She won't have big stacks of books to reach for, she won't rest the heavy books on back when I'm sleeping, she won't have to get up to find a new book when she finishes one because she can download wirelessly from anywhere, and she won't be lying on the cold floor like when she reads the newspaper now. Even better, she won't go into the computer room so much. I hate that room because they don't let me in there. She hates it because it's a "man cave".

I think she can craft a good argument why we need one. She'll say it saves money in the long run. That she won't want a white laptop anymore if we get one. She'll say it's green, even though it's white. She's good at twisting things around to sound like they'll make her happy and make the world a better place. I know it won't really make her happy. But the kindle will make me happy, so now all we have to do now is convince papa...

My LibraryThing

Hey folks!
I played around with LibraryThing, and I set myself up a catalog. If you want to check out what this pug is reading right now go to http://www.librarything.com/catalog/theycallmemimithepug

That's all for now. I need to get back to sleep.

LibraryThing is not for pugs

I heard my cushion telling the tall one about LibraryThing the other day. Seems she quite likes it, even though she has a fairly small library of books at home, and she keeps giving them away to people. Not to mention, she doesn't always like people to see what she's reading. But anyway, I guess she's taken by how easy the site is to use and how cool it is to see all your little bookies lined up on the computer. I heard her say "I wish kitcat's search worked as well as amazon" but I don't really know what that means.

I like books for a different reason than people do. The only thing I like about books is the way they smell and taste. The ones my cushion brings home that have a zillion people hand smells on the edges... I have to be careful not to get a paper cut on my tongue, but I love to lick those books. Don't get grossed out - I use my driest lick, just to get the taste. The papery edges where the fingers rest and the pages get turned... mmm... books... It's just not the same on a computer, even if you can customize the display to show the exact edition of the book you own (heaven forbid the cover isn't right! spoiled people). Computers don't taste good.

But my big problem with LibraryThing is privacy. I have books I might like to share with my people, and other's I'd rather they didn't see. The bestsellers (mmm... lots of fingersmells) and the romances (mmm... bonbons and lady finger smells) I will share. I'll tag those wishlist and have my people bring them home for me. But the private books - the radical militant pug revolutionary heroes, the books on strategy - I just don't want them to know about. I don't know how they might use that information against me.

So LibraryThing People, if you're out there, make it so we can share some books and keep others private . Go look at Flickr with their friends and family designations. They help me protect my good name. And I do have a good name. They call me Mimi. Yes, like that woman from the Drew Carey show with the eye makeup. I used to have a weight problem...