Hunger Games...Ender's Game

For almost all of my adult life, I felt that reading fiction was a waste of time.  Why would you want to read a book when you can just watch the movie?  I've heard from book readers that movies do not do justice to the book, leaving out key scenes for the sake of limiting the movie time, and also eliminating the thoughts of the characters that is not easily portrayed on screen.

But my argument was that I'd spend only a couple of hours watching the movie versus several days with the book.  And all the imagery would be created for me.  I won't have to imagine it in my mind...which was just inefficient to me.

The Harry Potter Series, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, etc.  Reading freaks would spend their time, or rather, waste their time reading fiction.  I could never understand why reading instead of watching would be better.

Until one day, my friend Coleen, told me that she was reading "The Hunger Games" to her children.  She was one of "those" people that loved to read.  She suggested that I read it.

So I did.

It was a little difficult at first.  My mind had to wrap around the words of the book to create the scenes that were so readily available on TV or the big screen.  The storyline, which normally take seconds to unfold in the movie, took minutes to set-up, but the descriptive words that the author uses detailed the pictures I created in my mind very well, as well as the mood of the setting.  I found myself lost in my own world, unaware of my own surroundings.

Sometimes I would be in that mode where people say "I couldn't put the book down."   It didn't happen all the time, but when the plot was captivating, I really couldn't put the book down.

And now I know why people love to read fiction.  And I have found a new dimension in my life.  

I'm reading the third book of The Hunger Games series, entitles "Mockingyay".  For my birthday, my friend Rebecca gave me "Enders Games" as a gift.

Both Coleen and Rebecca say that I have to finish "Mockingjay" first before reading "Enders Games".  Something about not multi-tasking fiction books perhaps?  Maybe it's like watching two movies at the same time. 

Thanks, Coleen, for giving me this new leisure activity.