#side read

{21.05.20}

This is my side read, I'm reading a page or so each day. It is an English translation given to me by a local group.

I will start this post by admitting that this is probably a mistake. I read The Hunger Games right before my finals started, as a break from my tedious studying and Maugham's weary epic. However, finals descended upon me and I promised myself that if I just made it through, I'd reward myself with the last two books in Collins' series. They arrived this morning - Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I devoured both today, with a few good hours in between for errands and food and socialization with the world. In total, I would estimate the entire series took me roughly 12 hours to read.

And that is why this post is a mistake. I have just finished the final lines of Mockingjay's epilogue, and I am experiencing a combination of emotions that many avid readers are familiar with. First, and foremost, I feel cheated. This is not because the story ended without any catharsis. No, I always feel this way after coming to the end of a good story. Some people put down a book and smile and say, "Yes, I am fulfilled. That is enough." The end is never enough for me. I feel abandoned - as if the friends I have made over this great journey have turned tail and left me. And I'm emotional, not in the weepy romantic sort of way, but the sense that I wax philosophical over life, and the story, and pretty much anything really. Finally, it is late, and during the early morning I always tend to say things that I believe sound very important and meaningful, but in the morning turn out to be cliched and ordinary.

First I will say that none of the books from The Hunger Games series are one of my favorites. Nor will I say they are particularly well written - they're not horrible, but they lack an... eloquence that I sorely missed. But they have a story. The kind of story where you can't wait to see what happens next, so you skip down a few paragraphs to get to the real meat of the plot. Then you go back and read the descriptions and dialogues you skipped - mollified that you know whats coming, and you can savor the slow crescendo to the actual event.

The characters are perfect - especially Katniss. She embodies everything a main character should be, particularly in a first-person novel. The reader has only a few degrees of separation from the character; so that they may sympathize one moment and admonish the next. She annoyed me sometimes, but never enough that I would cast her off - and there was always Peeta to balance out her sometimes savage practicality. And that is precisely why Peeta isn't the main character - he is too perfect, he is the counter-weight to balance Katniss. The reader just removed enough (because they view him through a first-person lens) that they can enjoy Peeta without being suffocated or questioning his perfection. While it is true that in Mockingjay he is not the lovable Peeta of the first two books, in the end he still retains his greatness that makes him so attractive.