The Hunger Games Movie

For the first time in a long time, I went to a movie on the day it came out.  I bought my tickets days in advance, stood in line, and held what felt like a million seats.  But after reading the book, I knew I had to see The Hunger Games right when it came out!

 

I thought the movie was fantastic!  I loved the costumes, makeup, acting, high-tech gadgets, and more!  I fell in love with Gale in the movie and felt his pain.  But, I also really love Peeta.  What a predicament LOL.  I know some people complained about details that were changed or left out but c'mon, who wants to sit through a five hour movie?  My only small complaint was the shaky camera.  It made me a bit nauseous.

 

If you have been debating about whether to read the books or see the movie, do it!  You won't regret it!

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

                                                     

I am all about the trilogies lately.  Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

After finishing The Hunger Games, I visited used bookstores to find Catching Fire.  I just hate paying full price for books!  I found it at this great little bookstore on the Santa Barbara Mesa called Mesa Bookstore.  The nice man had it behind the counter and sold it to me at a great price in almost new condition!

Spoiler alert to anyone who hasn't read book 1.  Catching Fire follow Katniss and Peeta after they have both managed to win The Hunger Games.  The Capitol is livid with them for making fools out of them.  Katniss is thinking of just running away from it all.  I couldn't put this down and had to force myself to read it over two nights instead of staying up all night reading it!  My friends were unfortunately right about one thing though, the second book is somehow more violent and disturbing than the first!

What an amazing trilogy.  Where did Suzanne Collins think of this stuff???

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge - 14/50

100+ Books In a Year - 17/100

The Hunger Games

I bought The Hunger Games last year from The Book Depository and just never got around to reading it.  But with the movie coming out next month and my blog reading challenges, I knew it was time to read the book!  And...I read the whole thing in a 24-hour time period!

I'm sure I am the last person on earth to read this book, but I will still do my usual plot summary anyway.  North America as we know it is gone, replaced by Panem.  Panem consists of 12 districts and the main character, Katniss Everdeen, is from District 12, the slum of all the districts.  The Capitol of Panem hosts The Hunger Games each year, a fight to the death between a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts.  The fighters are called tributes, and are drawn at random.  When Katniss' sister Prim's name is drawn, Katniss volunteers to go in her place.  The rest of the book is the training for and then fighting of The Hunger Games.  If you haven't read it, you'll have to read it to see who wins!

This book raised many questions for me about the YA genre.  What makes a book classified as YA?  This book about fighting to the death doesn't seem so appropriate for young readers.  I know I always read books above my age level, and don't think this book would have been appropriate when I was 9 or 10.  So, what do all of you think about that???

Progress toward:

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge - 13/50

100+ Books In a Year - 13/100