woutR wrote:Just the other day I thought about reading a book, but then i read the comments about how it's like twilight so i think I'll pass. I've never read the lord of the rings series, so maybe I should get to that first.
Exactly same thing that made me not want to read them. I saw in some review "new Twilight"...
I started the audiobook yesterday and finished around noon today.
Nothing to complain about really. It reminds me of the giver as there are no real surprises, the language is pretty simple, but the story is good and it keeps you moving along.
I never read twilight but I assume people make the comparison because there's a love element. True blood, walking dead, lost, etc. all have the same kind of thing. The only difference is that the main character is a girl. If you're the kind of guy that won't listen to female vocalists because it makes you gay, you won't like this book. If you judge the worth of a song by it's lyrics, you might like this book as long as you go in without the expectation of a literary classic.
There isn't a strong underlying message (like an Orwell book) but it has about the same entertainment value.
This is the first time I've ever heard someone say that they listen to audio books. I knew they existed, but for whatever reason I have always just discarded the idea of it. Do you just sit down with your MP3 player of choice and chill as someone reads the book to you, or can you like.. go for a walk and still 'read' a book?
woutR wrote:This is the first time I've ever heard someone say that they listen to audio books. I knew they existed, but for whatever reason I have always just discarded the idea of it. Do you just sit down with your MP3 player of choice and chill as someone reads the book to you, or can you like.. go for a walk and still 'read' a book?
I only listen to audiobooks while I work. When I arrive at work I pop in my earphones and I seldom take them out until it's time to go home.
I might have to give the books a try whenever I get around to it... I watched the movie and I was able to catch on to what they were doing, but I didnt really know everything since I didnt read the book.
I just dont understand how a 12 year old would win -_-
Well, went to see the movie yesterday. I wasn't exactly disappointed since my expectations were set between a Nicolas Cage film abortion and a straight-to-DVD teen flick. It felt like I was watching a very long YouTube movie / high school play.
Kind-of spoilers:
The main thing that truly bugs me about this book is what the hell makes the protagonist so special? The fact that the story (and the world of the book) revolves around her seems so...extremely forced. I can't name a single thing about her that's so unique it would compel people to start a revolution or throw away their lives for her. Not a single thing. I know it's fiction but the book makes it seem like the smallest things like her goddamn wardrobe or her personal love life makes grown men weep. Unless their society is made of up of people with the mentality of hormone-ridden preteen girls, the story makes no sense at all.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken.
I liked the movie. Didn't quite have the character development that the book had, but that's to be expected. I really liked the guy that got to play Haymitch, and Katniss' costume designer. Liked them both quite a bit more then I did in the book.
And I don't believe I'll be reading the second book until after I see the second movie. While I already know the general plot summary, I don't yet know the details of the second and third books. So I feel like by not watching them, the movies will be more suspenseful.
The books are terrible*. The characters are either completely unbelievable or a new subspecies of humans that are ridiculously illogical. There's maybe 1 character in the entire first half** of the first book I liked, kinda... well, I didn't hate her so that's almost liking. Most characters feel like they don't belong in the world but exist for the sake of the plot or some rehashed version of her theme. Most choices and dialogue, in particular the ones near big scene transitions, feel like plot devices rather than choices a human being would make.
Personalities shift like crazy for no good reason. It's one thing to make a very difficult decision contrary to your personality, it's another to make that decision that's contrary to your personality and then have that decision change your personality a complete 180 degrees. There's cognitive dissonance and then there's being completely inhuman, it feels like her characters all fall in the latter category.
The author has the habit of beating me over the head with her theme over and over again like every episode of Pokemon telling me friendship is power or Yugioh telling me to believe in the heart of the cards. Themes are supposed to be brought out throughout the entirety of the novel where the author presents a problem in human nature and delves into the intricacies of that problem through the actions of the protagonist, not go: "HEY LOOK HERE'S MY THEME!!" and every chapter or so repeat: "HEY LOOK, ANOTHER THING THAT REMINDS YOU OF THE THEME I TOLD YOU ABOUT 3 CHAPTERS AGO!!"
*That being said, if you happen to like all that stuff: conflicts resolved almost purely through the use of plot devices, digestible theme that's blatantly obvious, characters that aren't relatable in any way, shape, or form (people love cheering on godzilla after all) where you can live vicariously through a character in a world where human logic bends to your will because you're the center of the universe and villains are essentially reduced to cartoon caricatures or comic relief then you will love this book.
**Didn't read through the whole first book because I got bored. I didn't get bored because I hate reading, I love reading. I didn't get bored because I have a short attention span, I got bored because the book was predictable and contrived and there wasn't any point in forcing myself through the second half. Didn't need to read the ending either, mostly because I didn't care what happened to anyone and somewhat because there's a sequel so it wouldn't be a proper conclusion anyways.
I read the book in one sitting yesterday and watched the movie today. I think this is one of the rare occasions where I find the movie to be better than the book.
I didn't care about any of the characters in the movie version. I didn't feel bad when any died. In fact, I was almost excited that they were going to die, merely because nothing in the movie was done to get me to care.
Also: Woody Harrelson made that movie worth a watch. For his scenes alone.
SM-Count wrote:The books are terrible*. The characters are either completely unbelievable or a new subspecies of humans that are ridiculously illogical. There's maybe 1 character in the entire first half** of the first book I liked, kinda... well, I didn't hate her so that's almost liking. Most characters feel like they don't belong in the world but exist for the sake of the plot or some rehashed version of her theme. Most choices and dialogue, in particular the ones near big scene transitions, feel like plot devices rather than choices a human being would make.
Personalities shift like crazy for no good reason. It's one thing to make a very difficult decision contrary to your personality, it's another to make that decision that's contrary to your personality and then have that decision change your personality a complete 180 degrees. There's cognitive dissonance and then there's being completely inhuman, it feels like her characters all fall in the latter category.
The author has the habit of beating me over the head with her theme over and over again like every episode of Pokemon telling me friendship is power or Yugioh telling me to believe in the heart of the cards. Themes are supposed to be brought out throughout the entirety of the novel where the author presents a problem in human nature and delves into the intricacies of that problem through the actions of the protagonist, not go: "HEY LOOK HERE'S MY THEME!!" and every chapter or so repeat: "HEY LOOK, ANOTHER THING THAT REMINDS YOU OF THE THEME I TOLD YOU ABOUT 3 CHAPTERS AGO!!"
*That being said, if you happen to like all that stuff: conflicts resolved almost purely through the use of plot devices, digestible theme that's blatantly obvious, characters that aren't relatable in any way, shape, or form (people love cheering on godzilla after all) where you can live vicariously through a character in a world where human logic bends to your will because you're the center of the universe and villains are essentially reduced to cartoon caricatures or comic relief then you will love this book.
**Didn't read through the whole first book because I got bored. I didn't get bored because I hate reading, I love reading. I didn't get bored because I have a short attention span, I got bored because the book was predictable and contrived and there wasn't any point in forcing myself through the second half. Didn't need to read the ending either, mostly because I didn't care what happened to anyone and somewhat because there's a sequel so it wouldn't be a proper conclusion anyways.
I've never heard of bookworms engaging in book-burning but you might come close to it if you ever decide to pick up the third one.
I'm on part 3 of book 3, aka the end. We'll see if I like it.
Saw the midnight premier with a few friends, we all agreed they needed to develop the characters and relationships better. Like Katniss and Rue... I feel like if you had not read the book their relationship in the move was "meh" at best, my GF was balling, lolz. Overall I enjoyed the movie though. It isn't amazing by any means, but I was satisfied.
Done with the 3 book(audiobook) weeks ago. I cant really say I like it. She's missing a whole lot of action, people treated her like a trophy inside a glass-cased cabinet, and when she starts to act for herself and tries to add in more pressure, SHIT HAPPENS. Too much mushy emotions put into the book, too much indecisiveness and/or immature decision which always leads to her blaming herself of the result and the lack of action or responsibly playing her title made me a bit pissed of after the audiobook was done.
The only thing that I was interested in was the part where the Capitol bombed District 4's(not sure was 4?) Hospital and they fought back and stuff. Other than that, I think the author lacks better description on how actions or events happen/are happening made it a hard for me to imagine who things were going.
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Alastor Crow
