Just finished "The Hunger Games"

SC Tiger · 05-02-2012, 09:31

I just finished "The Hunger Games" (borrowed it from the Kindle Library). Pretty decent book but a very disturbing premise.

I think it is aimed at the younger crowd but I still enjoyed it. My wife wants to see the movie and I wanted to read the book first, as I find that if I see the movie a book is based on before reading the book, it kind of ruins the book for me.

erkman · 05-03-2012, 07:22

You should try to get "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" and read them before seeing the movie. There are some things in the movie that are in "Catching Fire" that isn't explained in the movie. Overall I think it was a decent trilogy, with the last book being the best one, IMO.

SC Tiger · 05-03-2012, 08:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by erkman

You should try to get "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" and read them before seeing the movie. There are some things in the movie that are in "Catching Fire" that isn't explained in the movie. Overall I think it was a decent trilogy, with the last book being the best one, IMO.

I'm working on "Catching Fire" now. I'm about 80% done and should be through by the weekend. Unfortunately I'll have to buy the last one (can only borrow one book/month on Amazon Prime). The great thing about a Kindle is I don't have to go to a bookstore to get books.

jeffyjeff · 05-03-2012, 10:53

haven't seen the movie yet, but i read all three books a couple weekends ago. definitely written for a younger reader, but i enjoyed them.

SC Tiger · 05-03-2012, 11:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffyjeff

haven't seen the movie yet, but i read all three books a couple weekends ago. definitely written for a younger reader, but i enjoyed them.

Agreed on the younger reader bit, but they're not in the realm of the Twilight books (which I have not read and do not plan to, and I haven't seen the movies either and do not plan to).

On another topic, I saw "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" before reading the book. Afterwards the book was a disappointment as I kept trying to fit what I read in the book into what happened in the movie.

eracer · 05-03-2012, 11:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by SC Tiger

Agreed on the younger reader bit, but they're not in the realm of the Twilight books (which I have not read and do not plan to, and I haven't seen the movies either and do not plan to).

On another topic, I saw "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" before reading the book. Afterwards the book was a disappointment as I kept trying to fit what I read in the book into what happened in the movie.

That's amazing to me.

I couldn't even finish the movie. It was so utterly retarded and poorly done that I reached my level of 'nails-on-chalkboard' annoyance about halfway through.

It frightens me to wonder what I would have thought had I not read the (excellent) book first.

Oso · 05-03-2012, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by SC Tiger

Agreed on the younger reader bit, but they're not in the realm of the Twilight books (which I have not read and do not plan to, and I haven't seen the movies either and do not plan to).

On another topic, I saw "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" before reading the book. Afterwards the book was a disappointment as I kept trying to fit what I read in the book into what happened in the movie.

IMO "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy (There are four books in the trilogy.) is one of the best series ever written. The movie on the other hand was so bad I couldn't watch half before turning it off.

I enjoyed all three of the "Hunger Games" books and also the movie. There are differences, as would be expected, but the story is pretty close. I'm looking forward to the rest of the movies in the series.

SC Tiger · 05-04-2012, 08:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oso

IMO "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy (There are four books in the trilogy.) is one of the best series ever written. The movie on the other hand was so bad I couldn't watch half before turning it off.

I enjoyed all three of the "Hunger Games" books and also the movie. There are differences, as would be expected, but the story is pretty close. I'm looking forward to the rest of the movies in the series.

I liked the movie ok but it didn't make a heck of a lot of sense in retrospect. I think the book would have been better if I hadn't been trying to fit everything from the book into scenes in the movie.

SC Tiger · 05-08-2012, 11:14

I finished the last of the three books last night. As they go on you get more of a sense of their target audience (younger crowd - probably why I finished them so quickly) but I still enjoyed them. Probably won't read anything else by Collins though for a while - at least not just because she wrote it.

"Mockingjay" was kind of wierd. It was different from the first two. The end was kind of depressing to be honest and left me with a question that I won't post b/c it's a bit of a spoiler. At one point I had to go back about 5-6 "pages" (Kindle) to figure out what the he!! just happened.

Supposedly, depending on box office all three books will be made into movies but I don't know how well "Mockingjay" will translate. However, if it's got the same actress (Jennifer Lawrence) in it how bad could it really be?

(that feels wrong since the character is supposedly only 17 but the actress is actually somewhere in her 20s I think).

One thing on a Kindle is you don't get a good sense of how long a book is. There is a number at the bottom that tells you where you are but outside of the percentage it is hard to interpret (usually something like 2045/4857 - 4857 whats?)