Once in a lifetime?

         (Originally posted on Mar 3, 2007 12:56)
         A couple of days ago I was zapping my TV and I stumbled on a movie that was just starting, just showing the Warner Bros. logo. It turned out to be a famous movie. On my Yahoo Messenger list there were many of my friends online so I thought I'd do a round up and tell my friends that this movie was on TV right now. One or other just acknowledged, some said they will watch but most said something on the lines of "Hey man, I've seen this already!"

         Well... I'm a movie addict. When I like a movie I don't just watch and forget it. When I like a movie I feel compelled to watch it again and again. I collect movies because I know that sooner or later I will want to watch them again.
And I thought most of my friends would do the same. That's why I did the round up telling them that this movie was on air. I was surprised to hear "I've seen this before". I mean, I expected to hear "I'm too busy for movies now" or "I don't like this movie" or even "I refuse to watch violent movies" like I heard from one certain person when I was commenting on "The Silence of the Lambs". But a dismissal like "I've seen this before" was surprising.

         So I wonder... How many of you people out there treasure good movies and how many see movies as disposable goods and watch it once and throw it in the dustbin?

         How about books? Do you people like to read books over and over again?
         I still remember when I was 10 or 11 and I read Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" for the first time. I read it in the same day I got it and as soon as I finished the last page I turned back to the first and started it again.
         On the other hand, I have seen a strange sight once. I was in a concert hall, waiting for the concert to start and in the row in front of mine was an old man reading a book in a very peculiar way. He had a pen on his left hand and with it he was tracing a line over each line that he read. I don't mean that he was underlining the words. No. He was "overlining" the words! He was rendering the book unreadable after each line he finished.
I wonder if he has at home a bookshelf full of unreadable risked out books or if he just throw the books away when he finishes. Anyway both notions sound equally horrible!
         If he keeps a library full of unreadable books... what is it's purpose? Is it a twisted kind of vanity? Like "look, people, I read ALL these books. And guess what? No one ever will read them again! (insert evil laugh here).
         Or if he just throw the books away... Why? Is it a twisted case of possessiveness? Is it like "this is MY book! I do it what I want with it! And I prefer to destroy it and throw it away then donate to a library where other people can use MY book! (insert maniacal laugh here).

         Oooh... It makes me wonder...


         Has anyone read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451? Or seen Truffaut's movie based on this book?