…with the Hunger Games!  And I'm not afraid to admit it anymore.

For the past two weeks, I've been asking my girlfriends, in my most hushed secretive voice, if they've started reading this trilogy.  I'm 1 for 3 so far.  All I want to do is talk about it in depth with someone as giddy about the series as me.  I'm also on the lookout for someone willing to camp out over night so we can secure the best seats at Galaxy Cinemas when the movie is finally released  on March 23rd.

For those who don't know, the Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy about a dystopian society in which teenagers are forces to take part in annual Hunger Games where they must battle to the death. The heroine is a 17 year old girl names Katniss.

The attraction for me is that such a strong female character is featured in book geared toward young people.

This is young adult literature at it's finest but that's where I get defensive.  I do not read young adult literature!  I never have and swore I never would.  I'm as judgmental as they come and I've always rolled my eyes adults reading Harry Potter and Twilight so I don't even know how I managed to stumble into the Hunger Games in the first place.  Yet somehow there it was in audio book format on my MP3 player.  ( I usually listen to books at the gym instead of music.  I find books better at distracting me from how bloody boring the gym is.)

By the time I was a couple of chapters in, my listening wasn't limited to my infrequent gym visits.  If you've spotted me walking around downtown in the last couple weeks with headphones on, I was Hunger Gaming!  If I missed your phone call, I was Hunger Gaming.  If I've sounded groggy early in the morning it's because I was up late Hunger Gaming the night before!

Having never read Twilight or Harry Potter I feel like I'm in a pretty good position to declare that Hunger Games is in an entirely different realm than that dribble.  In fact, I would say it's more in line with George Orwell's 1984 than those silly fairy tales. 

So I will sit tall with my head held high while I scarf an oversized tub of popcorn at the movies next weekend and I will sip my diet coke slowly so that I don't miss a minute of the big screen version of new obsession.  There's no time for bathroom breaks in the Hunger Games arena. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an archery lesson. 

May the odds be ever in your favour.