Week One: The Hunger Games

This is kind of a cheater book in my quest, seeing as I started it just before Christmas (It was an early present to myself), but the stress of the holidays took over and I didn't really get much reading done until after the 1st of the year. Just give it to me ok?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the first in a trilogy, and released in the fall o f 2008. It takes place in a far off dystopian future based in pretty much what is left of North America after some sort of horrible apocalypse type event that rendered most of the country underwater and disappearing. The main characters name is Katniss Everdeen, the oldest sibling of a fatherless threesome. I find is quite hilarious that almost every hero in stories is missing at least one parent, see; every Disney movie ever.

The Hunger Games are an arena fight where one boy and one girl from each of the surrounding 12 districts (aged 12 to 18), must fight to the death, to claim one victor who will receive a fruitful bounty for their poverty stricken district. So winning the games is a big deal, besides that fact that you aren't murdered by a pool of your peers.

I know what you're thinking. This book sounds disgusting and sick! Who would want to watch children fight to the death and kill innocent people!? What kind of messed up in the head writer thought of this?! Well... maybe I am just a sick and twisted person, but I found that premise the basis of the reason why I wanted to read it.

It was a quick read, and minus the few days before Christmas, I finished the book in about 6 days. Keep in mind I have a job and a family to feed too, so reading 24/7 is mostly not an option. I mostly enjoyed reading in a hot bubble bath every night until the heat caused me to take a cold shower and join my boyfriend Charlie in the living room for Netflixed episodes of Dexter.

So back to the book. Basically where America once stood is Panem, a much smaller country with the center (or so we assume) being the Capitol. Think of it as Washington DC, meets Hollywood. Everyone there is rich, genetically and surgically enhanced and the higher ups hold all the power. Outside of the Capitol, are the districts, 1-12, with 13 obliterated and in ruins from a major uprising and rebel attempt, the effects of this which lead the the Hunger Games being formed in the first place. Pretty much a giant "Eff You districts, you think you can take over the capitol? Well you can't, so each year we're going to kill your offspring in a bloody, unfair and hardcore televised sport so we can watch and laugh as delicious meat juice drips off our plastic faces. Suck it!" Yeah that's pretty much exactly how it is.

This book is a "Young Adult" type novel, so you aren't going to find much sex or foul language, but there is a crap ton of gory brutal violence. It's not the kind of descriptive violence you'd find in an adult novel, but it's there and the way Suzanne Collins writes, it's decently vivid in your mind. It's definitely a page turner, with the end of every chapter leaving you hungry (ha!) for the next. It's an interesting if not scary version of a pretty far off future, and I really enjoyed the imaginative descriptions of futuristic things. It kinda reminds me of those old Disney cartoons about the House of the Future! and such.

All in all The Hunger Games was a good book which I enjoyed just for the entertainment value of slipping away into another world for a few hours a day. I recommend this book very highly.

If you have any suggestions for books I should read, I do have 51 more to go, and any help would be very appreciated.

About: My Goal

I have always been an avid reader. Always. For at least as long as I can remember. In the 1st grade, I was put into an accelerated reading class with the 2nd graders, and I thought I was the coolest kid on the block. I'm sure back then we were reading Amelia Bedelia and Sideways Stories from Wayside School, but that's besides the point. I fell in love with reading at young age, and that was the end of me.

Growing up, after lunch my family always had a quiet hour of reading. The rules were simple, keep out of our parents hair and look busy in a book. My sister wasn't as keen as I was with the activity, but I loved it. I used to read all the Goosebumps books, and graduated over the years into Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I was a horror and suspense junkie. It wasn't until high school that I started getting into the classics, mostly because I HAD to read them.

Over the years I've favored a good book over a TV show, and usually just end up annoying my boyfriend because he has to rewind the DVR over and over for me. I have a few good friends and clients in book clubs who are always recommending me books to read, and my bookshelf has grown heavy with instant favorites. I decided that this year, 2011, I was going to up the ante and really challenge myself to trying to read a book a week, 52 books in all. The blog is a place for me to keep my thoughts and reviews and maybe inspire a couple of bookphobics to pick one up for the entertainment value.

Wish me luck.