Boeing to the movies

A digital book might be the answer to light packing. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Just hours before the Academy Awards ceremony Air New Zealand offered me and my cabin-mates a privileged preview. I AM quite small. So my luggage is always quite big in comparison. It's made bigger when I squeeze three chunky books into a bursting bag for a week-long holiday. And it feels that much heavier when I lug the books home barely opened. See, apart from having very little time on this trip to turn pages of delicious words by the fireside, I was far too mesmerised by the yet-to-be-seen-in-New-Zealand entertainment all around me to bury my face in a book that was released in 1980.

It started on the Boeing 777 ex-Auckland, with Sandra Bullock's Oscar winning performance in The Blind Side.

Just hours before the Academy Awards ceremony and a long time before New Zealand will see the film, Air New Zealand offered me and my cabin-mates a privileged preview. Admittedly, as a bit of an "um, rugby-who?" person, it was only because of the Oscar buzz I selected a film about American football. But despite Bullock's harsh blond dye-job, I could nod my approval when she accepted her golden statue for her performance the next night.

During Blind Side, I also watched Up in the Air a further five times because all four screens I could see from my seat were playing the film and one played it twice. I pondered launching a prestigious awards ceremony for the most played blockbuster on planes - Clooney and Kendrick would have two shoes-in.

It was a shame The Hurt Locker was not an in-flight entertainment option, as it's hard for Kiwis hard to nod approval during the Oscars when our cinemas haven't even started showing the thriller. But hopefully now we know the film is something we should see, our per-capita viewing will be far greater than anywhere else when it screens on April 1.

Anyway, meal and The Blind Side consumed, I flicked through the television options until I found episodes of highly anticipated ABC television series The Middle, which has been airing in the States since late last year. Starring Patricia Heaton, who played the long-suffering mom on Everybody Loves Raymond, it's a sign-of-the-times family comedy we can look forward to on TV2 mid-year. From the interest it sparked among my cabin-neighbours, I see it being as popular with Kiwi families as Modern Family and Packed to the Rafters.

Television I hope will not make it across the Pacific Ocean? The reality shows that stalked me as I channel-surfed in the States, featuring doomsday voice-overs and smash-ups or sinewy ladies with serious toenail predicaments. I could not linger long enough to catch all the offending titles, but let's just say that if we are already adapting similar US reality shows by dubbing a Kiwi accent over the top - see Destroyed in Seconds and The Real Hustle NZ which premiere on TV3 this week - we'd better maintain a commitment to reading if we want to retain brain cells.

I am trying. Finally, sitting at the airport on the way home, I yanked one of my thick books out of my bag and fumbled with the pages as I tried to sip a coffee and clutch my handbag at the same time. Looking up, I noticed a lady reading a nice slim tab. I watched her effortlessly tap it and her eyes dart from top to bottom. Ahh of course, one of those ebook things I had pffft'd a few years ago. Her bag looked light. She looked very entertained. Turning, turning, turning ... hundreds of kilos of paper could have been stored in that wee screen. Online book retailer Amazon has pointed to its gliding profits and claimed it sells six ebooks for every 10 books in a title ... meanwhile reports this week show REDGroup, the owner of Whitcoulls is battling slumping profits, and claim it is moving to ebooks to counter it. I saw about 10 sleek ebooks on my way home, and two dusty paperbacks.

I guess I went on holiday and saw the future.