The other day I was watching an old episode of The Real Housewives of New York. One of them, who was married to a Count was insisting that she be addressed and introduced as Countess Luann. Even the poor waitstaff were not immune; she wanted them to address her as Countess even though they were already saying ma'am and Mrs.
A friend introduced me to "Dr. So-n-So" at an event the other day. When I asked what type of medicine he practiced, he said he was a Phd. I was very surprised, especially when he told me he had defended a few years ago. I understand the novelty of using the Dr title immediately after completing one's Phd, but I'd never encountered someone using it regularly, unless they were a medical doctor.
Personally, I'm all for using whatever title you want--especially if you've worked hard to achieve it but if you do, recognize that it may come off as pretentious and overbearing. Titles aren't just important for books.
Here are a couple great resources on title protocol.
Everything you need to know about titles from Emily Post:
http://www.emilypost.com/forms-of-address/titles
The proper way to address correspondence:
http://www.artisticaddressing.com/Etiquette.htm#TITLES
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