Day 15 - The Movies In My Mind

Good books, the ones that truly capture the imagination, play out like movies in my mind. I’m not entirely sure if this happens for everyone, or if it is simply my love for literature and film combined with an overactive imagination that create such wonderful shows in my head. But when it happens – and it doesn’t happen for every book, even though I can honestly say it will happen for at least part of every book, for there is usually some redeemable, imaginative spark in all stories – it is magical.

After finishing THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, I told myself that I was done, for a short while, with any book that would so totally capture my attention. The books (yes, I read many books at a time) I was in the process of reading were good, but I was not to a point in any of them where they had become impossible to put down. I thought I’d finally have the time to get some things done this summer.

Yet for some reason I found myself with the urge to read THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. (The nice thing about having so many books on my shelves unread – easily a hundred, seriously – is that I have something for whatever mood strikes me.) I’d heard good things about it, critically and from my mother. Needless to say, I started the book this afternoon and could not put it down. I read it through non-stop, with the exception of a quick 45-minute break for supper. Even though the idea for the story isn’t exactly original – I remember watching a Japanese movie based on a book of the same name, BATTLE ROYALE, by Koushun Takami, that pitted school children against each other to the death on an isolated island – the characters, especially Katniss Everdeen, kept the story alive. And thrilling.

Knowing the sequel, CATCHING FIRE, is out in bookstores already, and that the third and final book in the series, MOCKINGJAY is due to arrive August 24th, means I can fully expect to find myself completely engaged in at least two more novels this summer.

I can’t wait.