One of the great pleasures of chilling out on holiday is the chance to read uninterrupted by work, telephone, email etc. I read regularly on my daily commute, but there is something delicious about not being constrained by the number of tube stops or ten minute London Overground journey that cut into valuable reading time.
I bought two of the three books in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins in April, in readiness for my holiday. Outside of mini furore about whether one of the characters in the book was really described as black in the books, which is how it was translated onto the screen (she was by the way), I managed to steer clear of the film’s trailers and the spoilers which were fluttering around on twitter.
So I opened the Hungers Games with a fresh mind and at the beginning of my flight. One hour before the end of the flight and I had finished the book. Strangely, the Hunger Games was one of the film options on the flight but as I had the book in my hand I refused to watch. It is a great book. So great that even with the distraction of my beautiful seven month old goddaughter smiling and gurgling at me, I managed to finish Catching Fire by day three of my holiday. I knew that I NEEDED, (yes, NEEDED) to get hold of the third book. Now then, I took my tablet with me to play chess on… but by day four of my holiday I had downloaded and was half way through Mockingjay
The book is easy to read but not at all simplistic. The plot had plenty of twists and turns and the characters have depth – it does not read like a children’s book at all. If you have not read the book, read it. If you have not read the trilogy yet, and are going on holiday where the plan is to relax – take the trilogy with you- you will not regret it. If you have not read the book or seen the film, – read the book first.