Thumbs up for The Hunger Games
Invariably, when these books are mentioned in the bookstore where I work, the phrase of the day is “My son/daughter got it, but I picked it up and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” I hear a lot of rave reviews about books that are in fact mediocre, but I like young adult books, and since I’d never actually seen one of these in the field, so to speak, when this finally came in, I was curious. And things went like this: “I’ll just read the first page to see what the fuss is about – then I’ll sell it. Oh, I think I’ll read the next page. Oh, twenty pages. Gosh. Oh, I’ll take it home and look at it some more, then sell it in the morning. Oh my, did I just read 60 pages? Well, there’s only 310 left. I might as well keep going….” And four solid hours later it’s done, and even a day later it still hasn’t sold because now my co-worker’s hooked on it – and is saying he wishes we hadn’t already sold the second one.
“For the opening ceremonies, you’re supposed to wear something that suggests your district’s principal industry. District 11, agriculture. District 4, fishing. District 3, factories. That meant that coming from District 12, Peeta and I would be in some kind of coal miner’s getup. Since the baggy miner’s jumpsuits are not particularly becoming, our tributes usually ended up in skimpy outfits and hats with headlamps. One year, our tributes were stark naked and covered in black powder to represent coal dust. It’s always dreadful and does nothing to win favor with the crowd. I prepare myself for the worst.”
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