Don't leave me hangin'

Honestly, I don’t enjoy reading. Like, at all. I mean I will read when need be, but when I have a couple hours to myself you can usually find me napping or watching Netflix. Almost never reading a book.

Well I mean there was this one time over the summer I tried to be all deep and act like I had this mysterious side to me, so I would borrow books from my sister and carry them with me everywhere I went so I could whip it out when I got bored (waiting at the doctors, laying on the beach, etc.). But in all reality, I think I got about two chapters deep and just gave up on them all. 

BUT, with this new book I am reading, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, I am totally enjoying it! I know I only had to read 50 pages to express my initial thoughts on this post, but after that I couldn’t stop reading. I found myself reading it in between classes when I had some extra time, before I go to sleep, when I’m bored at work, I’m already a third of the way done with it!

Collins does a real good job at leaving you wanting more after each chapter. Cliffhangers, that's what they are. It’s like when a TV show throws all the good juicy drama in the last five minutes and you’re like 'REALLY? Now I have to wait an entire week to see what happens next?!' Well I mean that’s what’s great about books, you can just turn the page to see what happens next.

The first cliffhanger, and definitely not the last, is in chapter 1. Katniss has just come home and her mother tells her there is a visitor, she’s nervous because there are people from the Capitol there and she has no idea why. She says, “I twist the polished brass knob and step inside. My nose registers the conflicting scents of roses and blood. A small, white-haired man who seems vaguely familiar is reading a book. He holds up a finder as if to say, “Give me a moment.” Then he turns and my heart skips a beat. I’m staring into the snakelike eyes of President Snow (Collins 17).”

And then she ends the chapter. She just ends it. I was basically speed reading through this entire page just to see who was there, at her house. And then, those last five words I read so calmly and so leisurely: snake-like eyes.... of.... Pres-i-dent........ Snow. BAM! If this were a TV series I swear I’d be screaming in my seat. Oh, I turned that page so fast I got a little breeze from it. I could not wait to read about why President Snow had made this private visit to Katniss’ house. And that is what I believe I have come to like so much about this author. Her ability to draw me in and keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time, makes reading her book fun and worthwhile. 

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009. Print.

Nicole S.