12 R12M {January}

January: By popular demand

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

This book was the number one book suggested to me on my Facebook post. Apparently, I am the only one in North America who hadn’t read this book before the movie comes out. In fact, I had downloaded a sample of this book some time ago, before all of the movie buzz but the sample was extraordinarily short and I could not get engaged in the book. But since I am a follower and not a trailblazer, I decided to fork over the $4.69 and give it another shot.

I actually started this book in the beginning of December because I was just so darn excited to get started on a reading regimen, but hesitant because I hadn’t been impressed with the sample. It’s a good thing I got ahead of myself, though, because the book is a trilogy so even though I may have finished the book before December ever ended, there are two more to read to keep me going through the month of January.

The story is about a post-war North America that is dominated by a highly controlling government. Every year, 2 children (1 male and 1 female) from each of the 12 districts that make up the country Panem are chosen to go to the Hunger Games and fight to the death. The remaining warrior is the victor. The worst part of the book is reading along and getting super captivated, only to step back and realize this story is about a bunch of kids forced to murder each other in order to survive. Somewhat grotesque…

This series could have really been just one long book. I finished The Hunger Games on the couch one night while Sean was playing MLB The Show 2011 studying for finals and actually exclaimed a resounding “Noooooo!” at the end of the first book. It just ended. In the middle of a climactic plot in the story. So then, of course, I had to go to Amazon and instantly purchase Catching Fire for the Kindle.

Sidebar, this will be the first series of books I will have read on the Kindle. It is SO different from reading the physical book. It’s much harder for me to gauge how much of the book is left so when the book ended where it did, I totally didn’t see it coming. There are still page numbers and it shows what percentage of the book you have read, but I get caught up in the story and don’t pay any attention to my progress.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the story. Although it was somewhat difficult to get into, once captivated it was a hard read to put down. I had a list of things to accomplish before having family over for Christmas dinner and I lost an entire day reading this book.

I am now reading Catching Fire and am having a harder time staying in this book. I am 66% of the way through it but it just won’t seem to end! Hopefully I’ll finish it this weekend so I can start the final book in the series and keep on track with my goal. It took me about three days to finish The Hunger Games and I’m going on three weeks for Catching Fire. If I don’t make myself sit down and finish it, I just won't. I'll remember that I bought bananas on Monday with the intent to make bread on Friday...