Team Peeta.... or Team Gale?

You'll have to excuse my absence - I've just returned from Panem and District 13 - and I am exhausted!

Oh my goodness!  I had NO IDEA what I was in for when I decided that I should probably read something other than Judy Blume or Dr Seuss, and decided to read "The Hunger Games".  It's been a long time since I, Me, Marliss - not Mom - read a book for MY enjoyment.

I had no knowledge of what the book was about.  I knew it was a bestseller, so I just downloaded it on my Nook.  After the 1st pages of "The Hunger Games", I was hooked.  I am somewhat of a techy geek, so I had the book on my Color Nook, which in turn allowed it to be on my iphone Nook app, and backed up by the ipad Nook app.  If I was really desperate, I could also read it on my laptop.  I read whenever I could.  I took my phone to the bathroom and read a few pages at a time.  I read it while at the girl's swim lessons, I read it at night until 2 in the morning.  I was a complete dork.

I was obsessed.  And when I was done with "The Hunger Games", I immediately (I think it was 1:38 am)  downloaded "Catching Fire", so that I could continue with this newfound love of reading.

I was obsessed. 

Then, I finished "Mockingjay" and cried a bit at the end.  It took me a bit to figure out why I was crying, but I think there were so many things that moved me throughout the series - which by the way, was originally written to attract the young readers genre.  I've had many people tell me I act like a teenager, so perhaps this was just another example of my mentality!

I cried because I was done.  Now what will I do?  I cried because of the storyline and the horrific torture inflicted upon people by a government.  Could this really happen in our lifetimes?  I cried because I know I would never ever in a million years be as strong a survivor as Katniss.  I cried because I realized how much time I waste doing nothing and wondered why I only read stupid magazines and the captions under the pictures. 

But I also think I cried as I thought about what happens to our imaginations as we get older.  At what point do most of us lose the ability to imagine things as grand as this author?  Just watch kids play - the driving force behind their play is imagination.  What happens to that?  Do we lose it in school when we are told to pay attention instead of letting our mind wander in class?  Do we lose it when we are working and come up with a great idea, only to have it squashed by a boss?   Do we lose it because someone makes fun of us at some point?  And I also wondered how many hallucinogenics would I have to take to come up with something like The Hunger Games?  How does the author keep everything straight in her mind? 

In the end,  I decided I was Team Peeta and I decided I was going to try to use my imagination everyday and most importantly, try to never squash anyone else's.

I might also go shoot a few of Ken's arrows :-)