Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins......

Image courtesy of:
en.wikipedia.org

I have heard from a number of people that once they started this series of books, they finished the entire thing (3 books) in ____ days. (Three, five, two...) My own daughter said she stayed up until something ridiculous like 3:00 AM finishing one of them. (Oh, to be young again and able to stay up past 9:00 PM.)

I read this one, the second in the series, in just a couple of days, so I guess you can put me in that group. If I read more than just when I'm going to bed (and those rare moments I can snatch during the school day...shhhh), I would probably finish them more quickly.

Sometimes I think you should allow some time in between reading books in a series. Most of the time they are published that way (I think), and by the time the next one arrives, you don't have crystal-clear memories of the preceding book to use in comparison. Reading them back-to-back in a short period of time allows you to compare them, and I think it also leads to unrealistic expectations.

I liked the way this book started off, and I liked the way the ending leads naturally to the third (and final?) book in the series. I got a little bogged down in the middle part, though. When I got to the part about there being MORE of the Hunger Games, I said to myself, "Really? We have to go through that AGAIN?" I did appreciate, though, that the author didn't go to tedious extremes bringing us up to speed from the first book. I think it was safe for her to assume that we wouldn't be reading this one if we hadn't read the first one, and I liked the fact that she didn't insult our intelligence.

I will read the third book (since I've already paid something like $5 for it and all), but if the world came to an end tomorrow and I wasn't able to, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Wait...it would, wouldn't it? Never mind. I will probably go see the movie too, even if it means I'll have to see it alone. I'm prepared for it NOT to be just like the book, and that's okay too.

It wasn't a bad book, not one of those I'm sorry I wasted my time reading. I just wish there had been less of the same stuff. Maybe I'm being too picky.


2 comments:

DJan said...

NO, you're not being picky. I felt the same way about the second book. It was all right but nothing special. I did read the third one because I had to find out how it all turned out. I liked it, and I'm glad I read them. I was going to see the movie today until I realized it's spring break and the lines of teenagers going into the movie discouraged me. I'll wait until next week. :-)

Kelly said...

My husband and I saw the movie on Monday. I thought it was very good and only noticed one major departure from the book. (I could tell you what it is without it being a spoiler)