At the beginning of the week, I picked up Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, the next book on my A-Z reading challenge. About halfway into the first chapter, I was seriously considering dropping it and finding a different "H" book to read. For one thing, the narration is in present tense, and we all know how much I despise that. Mainly, though, I was just really disturbed by the whole premise - that a nation would put 24 kids in an enclosed space to fight to the death until only one remains. Add to that the notion that the kids selected for the "games" are chosen at random, with no regard for whether they are suited to fight, and it just gave me the willies.
I started looking for something else to read, but didn't find another "H" book right away, so every night I kept reading a little in The Hunger Games. And suddenly, I'm hooked. Yesterday while I was doing something else, I found myself wondering what was going to happen in the book. This morning I picked it up "just for a few minutes," and now I'm finding myself in a real struggle to not just abandon the work I'm supposed to be doing with Photoshop in favor of curling up in my favorite easy chair and reading the day away.
Why the turnaround? To be honest, I think it is the character of Peeta. I've started to feel some empathy for Katniss (the viewpoint character), but Peeta seems to be kind and good, and I guess I'm hoping he and Katniss together will do something that will expose the cruelty of the games. I'm hoping they refuse to play by the rules and possibly bring down this ridiculous institution. Now I simply have to know how it turns out -- enough that I can put up with that annoying present tense voice!
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