Game Over

I decided to postpone my update until I finished the entire Hunger Games trilogy. Well, I finished Mockingjay yesterday, so I guess it's time to talk about it. Those books certainly put the reader (and the main character, Katniss) through the wringer. By the end of the trilogy, so many people have been lost, it is almost unfathomable. Characters you thought were surely safe, died in an instant. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it was war after all. Wars cost lives. I was just shocked by some of the deaths. I have to admit, the love triangle in this trilogy was an issue for me. Reading the books I discovered that I didn't care who Katniss ended up with. I had no real preference on her choice of Peeta or Gale. I found that unusual. I usually have a clear cut choice in my mind. While reading the Twilight saga I was so adamantly "Team Edward," and I still am by the way. With Katniss, however, I didn't care who she chose, but I did care that she chose. If she had refused both of them, I would have been very angry. I think she made the right decision for herself. I was satisfied with the road the trilogy took.  Catching Fire, the middle book in the trilogy is my favorite. I felt The Hunger Games began too slowly, and I felt like Mockingjay dawdled along for a while before anything really happened. Yes, I enjoyed the trilogy and I would definitely recommend reading them, but they aren't joining the shelf I have at the top of my bookcase for my absolute favorite books. I've taken a more literary turn with my next book selection, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here's hoping I do better with it than I did with Vanity Fair.

This Isn't a Game

Wow, The Hunger Games  really became an intense book. I was a little worried at the beginning because it took a while to pick up, but once it picked up it was incredibly hard to put down. In fact, as soon as I finished it I went straight to "The Stack" and immediately started reading Catching Fire. Now I'm already one-third of the way through with it! Now, I know that these books are about to be made into movies and I'm curious how they're going to do this. There are a lot of things in this book--mainly the violence of the games--that will be very hard to get around censors. I don't know how they are going to be able to make these movies so that the teenage audience can actually go see them. They are going to have to cut a lot out to get a PG-13 rating. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they come up with. I know this is a bit brief, but I plan to write a bit about the whole trilogy when I finish reading them all. I'm sure that will not take very long.