The Hunger Games seems to be one of those things that is intimately tying itself into American culture and the American psyche, and is hard to ignore unless you’re really trying.
When I was younger, I preferred to be counter-culture, ignoring, say, Harry Potter for as long as I could, just because everyone else seemed to be into it. I eventually gave in and read all 7 books when I was dating a guy who loved them and had read each book several times over.
Now the current book phenomenon is The Hunger Games, which I admit I hadn’t heard of until the movie was released. Once I heard about it though, I watched the trailer of the movie on youtube, as well as Nostalgia Chick’s spoiler-free review of it.
Here in rural Japan I live really far from a movie theatre, so unfortunately I couldn’t go see it. Also it’s not out on DVD yet, but it is on amazon for pre-order.
The Hunger Games [2-Disc DVD + Digital Copy]
So, instead I decided to read the books, since I have a lot of time to kill in my evenings here.
I’m really quite pleased with the books. When I was younger, notably during my high school years, I LOVED dystopia books. My favorite book of all time is The Giver
So, I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that The Hunger Games is a dystopia as well, since I haven’t read a new one in quite a long time. I had thought it would be something more along the lines of an adventure story or something considering the underlying premise of kids battling each other.
In any case, I recommend getting at least the first book and digging right into it! If you haven’t already, that is.
You can buy the entire trilogy at very reasonable prices; the Kindle edition is only $18.99 for all 3 books:
Or you can buy a nice box set for $29.99
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set
At the writing of this post (July 2nd, 2012), the 1st book of Hunger Games is currently the #8th best seller in books on amazon.com, with Book 2 being #9 and Book 3 being #7 on the charts.
I’m currently in the middle of Book 3, and this series has been really interesting. After reading just book 1 I wasn’t sure how they would keep the series going, but have been pleasantly surprised about what books 2 and 3 have turned out to be. I highly recommend them.
Also, I’m glad I don’t have access to the movie yet because I don’t want it to color the way I envision the characters as I’m reading, (well, apart from what little I’ve seen from the trailer) but as soon as I go back to the US and the DVD comes out, it’s high on my priority list to see.
Happy Hunger Games!
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