Thursday, August 18, 2011
Fun and Games
I must confess that I read The Hunger Games this week. It was in the house and, after three weeks of dragging Dostoevsky to the pool and ignoring it, I wanted something light that I might actually read. It ended up taking me maybe five days. As with my studies in Dan Brown, I simply couldn't put it down, not because I actually thought it was good but because I just wanted to find out what was going to happen. I took it on the train without a plain brown wrapper to protect my reputation as a reader. I even hid out in the bathroom at work for a while just so I could finish a chapter. It was sort of like an out of body experience, like I was standing there watching some idiot read The Hunger Games and all of the sudden I realized that idiot was me and I really couldn't wait to find out what would happen at the Feast.
I mean, it's not the worst thing I could read ever. That would probably be the Twilight series. But there's no danger of that because of my strong conviction that sexy teen vampires are totally played out. Yes, the characters are one dimensional and the tropes a bit familiar, but the plotting is amazingly efficient and there aren't nearly as many wonky sentences as in, say, The DaVinci Code. I do have to say, though, that I just can't see any way that children should actually be reading this, as it's brutally violent from beginning to end. Why can't they just read The Phantom Tollbooth anymore?
Anyway, I couldn't sleep last night thinking about all the murdering going on, so I'm glad I'm done. At least for now. Book two is already taunting me from my nightstand.
I must confess that I read The Hunger Games this week. It was in the house and, after three weeks of dragging Dostoevsky to the pool and ignoring it, I wanted something light that I might actually read. It ended up taking me maybe five days. As with my studies in Dan Brown, I simply couldn't put it down, not because I actually thought it was good but because I just wanted to find out what was going to happen. I took it on the train without a plain brown wrapper to protect my reputation as a reader. I even hid out in the bathroom at work for a while just so I could finish a chapter. It was sort of like an out of body experience, like I was standing there watching some idiot read The Hunger Games and all of the sudden I realized that idiot was me and I really couldn't wait to find out what would happen at the Feast.
I mean, it's not the worst thing I could read ever. That would probably be the Twilight series. But there's no danger of that because of my strong conviction that sexy teen vampires are totally played out. Yes, the characters are one dimensional and the tropes a bit familiar, but the plotting is amazingly efficient and there aren't nearly as many wonky sentences as in, say, The DaVinci Code. I do have to say, though, that I just can't see any way that children should actually be reading this, as it's brutally violent from beginning to end. Why can't they just read The Phantom Tollbooth anymore?
Anyway, I couldn't sleep last night thinking about all the murdering going on, so I'm glad I'm done. At least for now. Book two is already taunting me from my nightstand.
