The Hunger Games...

I am not a follower.  Rarely, if at all.  I am not always a leader either.  I don’t know what I would call myself, but I typically beat to my own drummer, color outside the lines, refuse to do things half-assed, you get the idea.  For instance, when Pinterest came out, I sure as heck was not going to get involved with that if half of the world was as well.  Well, that didn’t last long.  Another good example though would be the Harry Potter books/movies, as well as the Twilight books/movies.  I REFUSED literally to read or watch these things.  My friend Brandi FORCED me (tied me to her couch and refused to feed me) to watch the first two Twilight movies with her and although I didn’t hate them, I haven’t finished watching the rest of them and probably won’t.  I cannot for the life of me get into vampires.  No matter how hard I try.  And I know there is a big market out there for them and that is great.  Just not my cup of tea. 

So, it came as no surprise to me that when word of The Hunger Games came out, that I flat out put my foot down and said I refused to read the book and I sure as hell wasn’t going to the movie without reading the book, so case closed.  Not so fast Tiffany.  All of my friends were or had read it.  Everything I was reading was about it.  What is this Hunger Games they speak of?  At best my curiosity was peaked.  Even when it was explained to me, what the book was about, I was all like, meh, and I am not a big futuristic apocalypse kind of fan so this book is going to be stupid. 

At some point it became blatantly apparent that if I DID NOT read the book, I would at some point real soon like, be in the minority.  And even though I don’t mind being in the minority, there are sometimes you just want to NOT be.  This was one of those times.  If the whole world is going to be talking about it I at least want to make an educated argument if I so chose to talk about it.  And that would require reading the book.  So, my momma did as momma does, went out and purchased it for me one weekend I was down visiting so I didn’t waste another day of not knowing what everyone was talking about.

If you don’t know by now, it is a Trilogy.  I finished the first two books, The Huger Games, and Catching Fire, in two days.  Literally.  Yes they are a quick read and yes they were originally written and geared towards young adults…but something happened, something I wasn’t expecting, as soon as I began reading.  I became attached.

I am not going to blow it for any of my readers who have not read them yet, so I will just say that I absolutely loved these books.  Like I would have to say I rank this series in my Top 10 of books ever read.  Even though it is set in the future, it is unbelievably true to the way the world functions right now.  It is believable I guess, which is why I loved it so much.  Because what happens is already happening in our world right now, just not necessarily in this context.  It is really profound and makes you think about a lot of things not just the whole premise behind the book.  At least it did for me. 

I am currently reading the 3^rd and final in the series.  I am reading all the articles that are out about this book and the upcoming movie.  Most of the people I have talked to have read it or are going to.  Most of the people didn’t like the 3^rd book as much as the first 2, which I found incredibly interesting because the lead actress in the movie finds the 3^rd book her favorite.  So now I am excited to get through it so I can see what she is referring to.  

I think it will strike a chord with everyone that reads it, in some way or another.  I am excited to hear what people think about it once the movie comes out.  This is one of those movies that I want to stay as true to the book as possible too, so I hope it does.  I generally do not get excited about movies and can patiently wait for them to come out on DVD or whatever, but this one, I must see in the theatre…and soon.  It opens Friday…

If you have a summer reading list, I suggest you add this to it.  It won’t take up much of your time and I honestly think you will love it.  If you don’t?  I would love to know why.