So my wife has been raving about these books (though she didn’t care for the third nearly as much as the other two). She’s very excited about the movie coming out (we’ll be on vacation the week it comes out so will have to catch it the following week). So I’ve finally taken her advice and started reading them.

Wow! The first book (The Hunger Games) was incredibly good. I could barely put it down. I started it on a Sunday evening. Around 3:00 am I finally forced myself (reluctantly) to put it down since I had to be up at 6:00 am. Being a bit more cautious about my reading time I finished it two nights later.

The second book (Catching Fire) I then started muddling through. I didn’t care for it as much and I kept wondering where it was going exactly and when/if it would be getting good. (Don’t get me wrong. It was good, just not as good and compelling as the first.) I was getting tired reading in bed last night (I read to relax and help myself fall asleep - usually) and was near the end of a chapter. I figured I’d finish the chapter then turn off the light. Then I read page 172. An hour and a half later I once again forced myself to put the book down and turn off the light. Then I couldn’t fall asleep and kept telling myself to turn the light on and pick the book up again. I eventually fell asleep but have been chomping at the bit all day to get some time to read again.

So, anyone else read these books? How was your experience with them? (Try not to spoil, please.)

I saw the trailer for the movie the other week. It looks like it might be worth a watch.

I’ll admit, until I saw the trailer I was planning to avoid the movie. I thought it was going to have vampires in it and there have simply been too many vampire movies lately.

THe movies I’ve watched so far this year have been pretty awful. Maybe this will break Hollywood’s duck!

I finished reading the first book this morning.  Like Tah, I found it hard to put down.  I found it rather interesting that the narrative was done in first-person present tense, which is definitely out of the norm.

I do admit that I found the subject matter similar to John Marsden’s Tomorrow series, what with teenagers battling for survival with no adults for support, as such.

I hadn’t heard of the series before, until I watched the movie trailor through someone’s blog.  And considering I’m always of the opinion that the books are better than the movie, made a note to get my hands on the books.  However, I will be optimistic if I end up going to see the movie, and hope that this will be one movie to be as good as the book it’s based on.

A lot of people I know had read the books and raved about them, so when I was ordering books for Christmas presents I bought myself the set. I didn’t start reading them for a few weeks, but once I started I was so glad I had the whole set - I got through them all in two or three days because I just couldn’t put them down!

I’d like to see the film too.

My girlfriend loved the first book and seems to be enjoying the series as well.  I’m impressed because she’s not a fan of science fiction, let along post-apocalyptic sf.  I’ll read at least the first book when she remembers to bring it over.  It sounds a lot like some of the stuff John Christopher used to write, and I loved him as a teenager.

On a semi-related note Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is a fun, moody book.  It reads like a biography and not a novel though, so I’m really interested to see how the movie plays.

Well I’ve just seen the movie

I enjoyed it

My full review can be found here http://www.veshearman.com/index.php/2012/03/movie-day-the-hunger-games/

I’ve only seen the adverts but it kind of looks like Narnia meets Battle Royale. I don’t think I’ll be taking time to watch this.

Having just read a bit about this on the BBC, it would appear that it is more like Battle Royale meets The Running Man, but done in a tween-movie way, like Twilight.