Ramblings about Hunger Games

Perhaps one of my greatest weaknesses is books. My mother always says that after I learned to read, all she ever saw of me was the top of my head over a book, and try as I might to temporarily give up the dream of a published book (I just don't have time to write right now), the books in my head won't leave me alone, even showing up in my dreams. That is where the problem comes in, putting them down. If the book is good (well-written, good movement to the plot, intriguing characters) I have a really hard time putting it down. Books follow me to parks, in cars (where I am not driving), into bathtubs, heck, I can read while cooking dinner. My housework, sleep and even my own writing suffers.

That brings me to the Hunger Games. The movie is coming out on March 23, I thought I would reread them before then. I started now because I thought it might take me a while to read all three, not so much. I started less than a week ago and am already on the last book.

I forgot how fast they move, and how much just about everything Peeta does and says splits my heart in half. I also have this problem that, in a well-written book, the characters become almost too real. I have very mixed feelings toward Katniss. A part of me hates her because she is so fickle and everything she does to Peeta. Another part of me thinks she holds to Gale because he is the last time her life made any sort of sense. But there is still something in her that makes me hate her, and I can't quite put my finger on it. It might have something to do with how clueless she is, clueless about how deep and real Peeta's love is for her, about the rebellion, about her role in the rebellion. But maybe it is something else entirely. I think the reader's view of Katniss is so colored by the fact that she is the narrator that it is hard to know how to really feel about her.

See, I am over analyzing a fictional character! But that is proof of good writing. It is what I want of my books. That and the ripping the reader's heart in two part.

And as I write I think that I need to re-evaluate my list of the best books ever...