I wonder how much of this is about something else. I saw the movie the other evening. I was enthralled, and as far as the “sitting” and “needing to pee” metrics? I sat through the whole thing. Good movie or bad?
I had a copy of the book, a nice hardback – carried that book around with me for years. A teacher suggested it. Said it was the source for some movie.
That book, I can remember the places I’ve lived with that novel in tow. Part of the less-than-moveable literary feast I carried around with me. My library grew by accretion, recommendations, bookstore browsing, classes, intellectual inquiry, and academic escape. The same library shrinks through loss, lending, and periodic trimmings Like now. Mercury is backwards. Good to time to trim the library.
When I saw the movie, I thought about all the tie-in, ancillary marketing material that might do well. “Liked the movie so I bought the book,” kind of thing. I wonder how many books a movie sells. I wonder if the movie is ever really as good as the book. I wonder how much a literary estate is worth, once the author is dead. Then, too, there’s the question about how much the movie grossed, in sales, at eight bucks a ticket – or more – and how much of that cash made it back to the writer’s estate.
But mostly I wonder if I would’ve liked the book I carried around for so long. I don’t want it now. Not interested in reading it these days. There was something symbolic about a hardback novel that I toted from state to state, location to location, moving library to library, for all those years. And I never read it. Planned to, but I finally got rid of it in the last couple of years. Just before it hit big.
