I just got finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I really loved it. You can check out my full review by clicking on my Goodreads icon on the right-hand side of this page.
It takes place in the near future when, after a series of global and environmental disasters, North America is divided into 12 distinct and oppressed Districts. As a way for the Capitol to keep the Districts under control and submissive, a yearly “game” is held where one female and one male teenager must compete in the Hunger Games. The 24 “tributes” are placed in an arena to kill each other, because only the one surviving person can leave the arena.
I know this sounds macabre and disturbing, and it is. You’re reading about kids feeling and doing these awful things, but it’s not the gruesomeness that stays with me, it’s the portrait of human nature. The main character wrestles with her complicated feelings for a fellow contestant, needing him to survive but also knowing that they inevitably would need to face each other down.
Why do you read? Do you read non-fiction to learn about real things and people?
I read because I love feeling new sensations. I love a book that, after reading only a few sentences, you are there in the story. The Hunger Games was like that. I couldn't really read it before bed because I became so tense and anxious (just like the main character) and couldn't fall asleep. Are you ever so into a book that you start to imagine things that aren't even written out? Like you imagine the background noises, even though there's not a single word to suggest it? Or you're convinced a character spoke in a Cockney accent only to later find out that there was never an indication of this, and suddenly you feel just a tad insane? No, just me?
Don't you love the way that books can let you live through extraordinary experiences that you'll probably never actually face? I would never want to face the things in The Hunger Games, but it’s still interesting to see and feel them. Pride and Prejudice is my favorite literary work. (That and, obviously, the Harry Potter series. I'm sure both are considered on equal standing in the scholarly world. Did you ever see the Friends episode where the friends are playing a group trivia game? The guy's team is asked "What does Rachel claim her favorite movie is?" and they say "Dangerous Liasons!" "What is actually her favorite movie?" "Weekend at Bernie's!" That's what I feel like when I list my two favorite books.) Anyway, I love Pride and Prejudice. Obviously because of the epic love story, but I can't be too jealous of that. Anyone that heard Michael's vows at our wedding knows that I've got my own Mr. Darcy. (Do you think Michael would approve of Fitzwilliam as a first name for our future children? I think it works for both male and female.) I will probably never be able to wander the English countryside in long skirts and petticoats carrying a basket of newly picked wildflowers. I might never get the chance to utter such things as, "She is the handsomest woman in my aquaintance" in context without getting some strange looks. But I can live those things, do those things, say those things while I read Austen's work.
That's such a hard question! It's seems to bounce around depending on my mood/what else I'm reading - but the constant is always Ender's Game. My true true true book love.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you liked THG. I really wanted to love it, and I'm sad I didn't. I still hold that it was because I did it on audio - it's on my to be re-read list.
Yeah, I read your review of it, and it does sound like the narrator might have had something to do with it. My audio book right now is annoying me so badly because he makes the 16 year-old characters sound like they are/have the maturity of 10 year olds.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe THG just wasn't your style? Either way, I really liked Ender's Game too! Funny, I read a Goodreads review comparing EG and THG.
I really think it was the audio - because THG is something I should, by theory, LOVE.
ReplyDeleteLOVED both reviews...I think because you're so much more intact with your psyche...realizing that something didn't feel resolved, but not knowing why...and then I read your review and I think, "yeah, they NEVER talked about those weird wolf things...and did they ever say where they went? Did they disappear? Did I miss that part?
ReplyDeleteI would be lying if I said I wasn't upset that Rue's wolf didn't at least help Katniss...you know, overpower the machine that was control of her newfound wolf body.....