Book Log – The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So, I discovered the Lending Library of Amazon. There’s over 100,000 titles you can just read for free with a Kindle and a Prime membership. You can borrow one at a time, once a month.

I haven’t figured out how to return it though. I expect that will be made clear at some point. Maybe it just disappears off the Kindle.

But I hadn’t found a book to read, until I was thumbing my wish list and noticed The Hunger Games. I’m usually skeptical of bestsellers, because of what I’m calling the “Clive Cussler Syndrome”, which is when authors put out a lot of really crappy books that just get magnetized to the NYT Bestseller list for an unknown reason.

I’m willing to accept that the crappiness may just be my perception. But only just.

At any rate, I figured I should check it out before the movie comes out. There were enough raves of The Hunger Games from people I actually know that I took a chance. A small chance, since… it’s free.

It’s a good book. Well crafted, not sentimental, not overly dramatic… just right. It draws you in and there’s no real good point to take a break and stop reading.

I just watched the trailer for the movie. I don’t know how it’ll fly… there’s a lot of inner thought going on that may just not translate to the screen.

We’ll see.

Book Log – Snuff

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

A Commander Vimes book from the Discworld genre. And really, I think it can be called a genre, since there are like 30 Discworld novels.

The Commander Vimes books really respect being a “copper”. We hear about how being a copper is in your blood, blah blah blah about every third page. The themes of justice are heavy-handed (“Goblins are people, too!”).

But Discworld stuff isn’t hard literature. It’s just silly, easy reading. And a bit addictive.

Don’t start, kids.

Book Log – A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky: A Tiffany Aching Adventure by Terry Pratchett

This is the second of the Tiffany Aching series, set in Discworld. Like it’s predecessor, The Wee Free Men, it’s aimed at a younger audience. But it’s still a Discworld novel. Granny Weatherwax makes an appearance, and I like that character from the “grown-up” Discworld books.

I think I say this about every Discworld book, but why re-invent the wheel: This is an amusing piece of mind candy.