I can take or leave movies. The IFE rarely has anything I haven't seen or want to see. The one time there was something I really wanted to see on UA, it froze 10 minutes in. My neighbor even offered to trade seats, but it froze on her system, too.

Besides, I started flying in the days before IFE, so I became accustomed to using long-haul flights as opportunities to read thick books.

I like taking an iPod for music, though, especially when I'm trying to sleep. The music that best lulls me to sleep is classical, and airlines' classical music tends to be on a fairly short loop and full of conventional selections, so I prefer my own playlist of soft instrumental music, which is several hours long.

I flew LHR>ORD shortly after the terrorism scare of 2006, and I didn't have a chance to buy a book. Fortunately, I had my laptop along and spent the first three hours of the flight organizing and editing my travel photos. It was a daytime flight, so I didn't feel like sleeping. Fortunately, there was a tolerable (not great) movie on the IFE, so I watched that, but I would have preferred a book.