You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

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Katniss Everdeen is a survivor. She has to be; she's representing her District, number 12, in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America. To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The event is broadcast like reality TV, and the winner returns with wealth for his or her district. With clear inspiration from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the Greek tale of Theseus, Collins has created a brilliantly imagined dystopia, where the Capitol is rich and the rest of the country is kept in abject poverty, where the poor battle to the death for the amusement of the rich.

Is it very sad that I've gone and bought the trilogy already?!

Not at all Jenny. I read the first couple of pages yesterday and am debating about downloading the other two. I've been warned that I won't be able to stop reading the books until I've read all three!

I loved this trilogy!

I have a feeling it may happen so I'm prepared. It happened with the Twilight books so I'm sure it will happen with these :)

Just bought it--it's cheap on Kindle! I'm going to hold off buying 2 and 3 since I've already got a virtual stack lined up in my Kindle. But from what I've heard other folks saying as well, I'm likely to end up reading all three.

I read it a while back, and I have to say It's kinda grim sometimes; but I really loved it- the series only gets better too! 8)

I just read this a month or so ago but now I think I'll have to reread it. So good! I bought the first one and read the whole series in 4 days ignoring all of the other books on my kindle.

I started to read it the other day. I'm about 8 pages in, and I think I'm going to start it over.

Wow, that's funny Janice. I was so reluctant to read it when I did - I usually really avoid the "hyped" books but sometimes that works in my favor too. When I sat down to read it I read the whole thing in less than a day and that is NOT normal for me. I know that there are a lot of people who can do that but I'm not one of them (except in really rare cases). I would not say that I "loved" The Hunger Games ... but I defnitely didn't put it down. With that said, while so many people have said that they then HAD to read books 2 and 3, I was fine stopping after the first one.

LOL! There were a few reasons why I never got into it. I had a small break at work one day so started it. But I've been sick with the flu all week and I've got a couple other books on the go that I wanted to finish.

So we'll see. :)

I've been thinking about how I might treat myself on Sunday to a pajama day, to recover from a busy weekend (my DD's HS graduation). There will be some sewing involved, of course, but I'm thinking Hunger Games might also be in the plan.

I just started reading The Hunger Games two days ago. I am liking it so far and know that I will finish it quickly. I am intrigued by the concept of the book and I'm eager to find out how it ends.

Just treated myself to a copy and was surprised by the fact it was the July read here. Must start this soon!

Sandy wrote: "I've been thinking about how I might treat myself on Sunday to a pajama day, to recover from a busy weekend (my DD's HS graduation). There will be some sewing involved, of course, but I'm thinking ..."

I'm treating myself to a pajama day today. Enjoy yours. :)

Is it cheating if I listened to this book on audio? I have a long commute and listened to the trilogy back in the early winter.

Listening to an audiobook is not cheating. It is just another format. I envy your commute listening to this book.

I finished this book yesterday. It was a 4 * for me. Looking forward to the discussion in July. I will wait until others catch up. Enjoy the read.

I did start it yesterday (after finishing How to Bake a Perfect Life). I'm only a chapter or so in, but so far I'm enjoying it. It's taking me back to my younger years when I read a ton of SciFi/Fantasy. Haven't read any in awhile so it's kind of fun to be back in that genre again.

I finished it this morning. Really surprised me by how easy it was to read and I have the next two on order from amazon.

It's a miracle! I've actually finished a book before the discussion has begun! Looking forward to it :)

It looks like people are getting excited about this group discussion. That will make for an interesting month. :)

This is my first time following along with a book. Do we all read it together chapter by chapter and discuss as we go or should we read it ahead before the month begins so that we can discuss the whole thing all month?

Generally we read the novel before the month begins and then discuss it throughout the month.

I'm glad you're joining in. And welcome to the group. :)

Janice wrote: "Not at all Jenny. I read the first couple of pages yesterday and am debating about downloading the other two. I've been warned that I won't be able to stop reading the books until I've read all t..."

It is true, I couldn't put the books down. Goodluck with that :)

Shaina wrote: "This is my first time following along with a book. Do we all read it together chapter by chapter and discuss as we go or should we read it ahead before the month begins ..."

I used to wait until the start of the month, but as Janice says, it works better if you are at least part way through when the discussion starts: it is often busiest in the first half of the month, rather than the second.

You can look at discussions from previous months to get an idea of the way they go... I was going to put a link, but I can't find one ("Discussion > Book Group: Past & Future Books" go to announcements of monthly reads, rather than the main discussions. If anyone else can spot them, maybe they can post a link.)

Here is the discussion for June. Tomorrow is the last day for discussion and I have one more question for the group:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

I liked this one. I thought the idea of the arena was really unusual, and I was keen to know what happened next.