79 - Reading Riot no. 7 & 8

So... I've been pretty busy the last couple weeks. As you can probably tell due to my lack of posts... haha. I started out last week reading a WWII memoir, Unbroken, but I've unfortunately had to put that on hold due to lack of time! But that one will be the subject of a post in the near future. So, for last week I did a reread, and for this week I did a must-read.

I know you'll probably judge me, but last week's book was...

Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer. I am like all the rest of the country in that I have read all of the Twilight Saga. However, I'm going to be hipster for a minute and say that I read Twilight when I was 13, and it wasn't because anyone suggested it to me. I just randomly picked it up at the library, and then I suggested it to everyone else, and let everyone borrow my copy. That being said, I was 13. Cut me a little slack. After reading Providence, and recognizing many similarities, I decided to reread Twilight and realized that everything I accused Providence of (lack of character and relationship development) was true of Twilight as well. I just hadn't read it in such a long time, so I remembered it with my younger mind. I tried to reread the whole series, but I couldn't get past New Moon and decided just to skip to the one I've only read twice. (I like to reread books a lot...)

Breaking Dawn was the best one, I think, but the series still doesn't have much substance... and if you look deeper into its meaning, the messages are really quite terrible. Bella is only truly happy with herself after she's changed with Edward. She claims sex is the epitome of human life. (Edward does make her wait until marriage, but still.) Her codependent relationship with Edward advocates unhealthy relationships, almost making them desirable. From an analytical point of view, you could say that Meyer is trying, in a backward way, to say those things aren't healthy in the real world by placing her characters in a fantasy world... but I'd say that's stretching it a bit. ANYWAY. If you want to read a really funny and really true critique of Breaking Dawn, click here. (Sara showed me this a few years back.)

Now onto my second read. For years, people have been telling me to read this book, and this week I finally gave in and read it.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

Ok, this book is a bit morbid. Well, more than a bit morbid. The whole premise is about an event in a dystopian world where children are in a game of Survivor. The winner is the last one alive. It gets pretty gory for a young adult read, but I actually really liked it. I kind of read it in one night... haha. It's very fast-paced, and the characters are very likable.

I was talking to my roommate, who read it just prior to me, and she was worried initially that it would be akin to Twilight in that it received a lot of hype for not a lot of substance. However, we both agreed that this book definitely deserves attention. The movie is coming out soon (a main reason for me reading it now) and my only hope is that the movie is a good reflection of the book.

I'm a sucker for love stories, but I loved this book because the main character, Katniss, is such a strong and confident person. Honestly, as long as I'm comparing the two, Katniss is everything Bella isn't. Bella is whiny with confidence issues while Katniss is strong, brave, and sure of herself. Katniss does her best to keep her humanity and her life in this cruel game that her government is forcing her to play.

I think this is a good segue read into more provocative books, such as Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 (both are books I love...) I would definitely recommend this book, for those of you who haven't read it yet. (I seem to be the only one I know who hadn't..) However, if you're not a fan of violence, I wouldn't let kids under 13 read it. My only complaint is the it ends very suddenly... good thing all of the books are already published and my roommate owns them! That's the nice thing about being the last person in the country to pick up a best-selling series...