My husband had read all 3 books in the series, so of course as soon as The Hunger Games film came out we just had to go watch it. I know deep down that I wanted to have read the book first, but the way my schedule has been running since January, who knows when I would have been able to accomplish that.

So off we went to go watch the movie. I knew a couple things here and there about the storyline, but really I basically was very clear with my husband that no spoiler alerts were allowed, I didn’t want to know about the characters, or anything really. It’s almost one of the very reasons why I don’t tend to watch a lot of trailers either. I like taking in the movie knowing the least possible about it to be either pleasantly surprised or to just be able to say I don’t like it, but not disappointed!

I liked the movie, although I was really judging the idiot parents that were in the movie theater with children under 10, and actually if I have a say, and I think I do since I’m a parent of an 8 y/o, don’t think I’d want my kiddo reading these books until perhaps 12-13. But that’s a whole other topic, so why a couple families brought, their 5, 7 and toddlers is beyond me.

So I left the movie theater with a lot of questions and a chatty version of myself wanting to know more about the different districts, and how does a country arrive for a need of Hunger Games, and who lived in the Capital, why were they so Willy Wonka-ish and ridiculous. And how did they get names into the bucket to become tributes, why wouldn’t the mom give herself up as tribute to save her little kiddo instead of her older daughter who really seemed to be the only one capable of taking care of the family anyway…  Of course my husband complied and answered some of my questions, but as soon as he started rambling I kept saying, wait no don’t tell me, I want to read and find out, yet, I couldn’t help myself but asking questions…

So of course what I did the following weekend was pick up my iPad and download the book from my hubby’s Nook and off I went for a day of reading…

What I actually liked about the book is that like any book you read it’s more descriptive. And found that one of my complaints as to why aren’t Catniss and Peeta eating until they burst in the movie, considering they came from a starving district was addressed in the book, they did eat their eyes out! And well the descriptions of all the rich food sounded yummy.  I also found interesting that the book is like reading Catniss’ journal with her view and thoughts of the world that she lived in. The movie didn’t give me that one sided perspective, it seemed to me that we got a better rounded perspective on the other characters too. So that was a nice addition.

The bad thing about watching the movie 1st is that you read and already have a vision of what characters looked like, and I just can’t get over the fact that Peeta was casted the way it was, because based on the descriptions from the book, the actor well didn’t represent what the real Peeta should look like. I also was expecting the book to go into far more details of the extravagant life at the Capitol, why it was all so colorful and crashing, and I didn’t feel the book did justice at explaining that, or perhaps the other way around, the movie took exaggerated liberties.

All in all, my big surprise was that even though I had watched the movie and knew what was going to happen, I couldn’t put the book down and liked the fact that it seemed that I was being told a war story over a cup of coffee with Catniss.

With that said, I’m eager to now start to read the other 2 books, because as I did with Harry Potter, I much prefer to read the book 1st and then be disappointed a bit that the movie doesn’t show XYZ that I loved in the book.

Think I need another lazy reading Sunday to get through book 2.