Have you ever read a book that you couldn’t stop reading but when asked why you couldn’t stop reading it you weren’t really sure? Has a book ever pushed your mind in such a way that you almost can’t explain it? I recently had this happen with not only 1 but 3 books! The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, are three books that I devoured and they pushed my thinking to a place I have difficulty explaining!

I have a good friend that will recommend books to me to read and occasionally she will hand me a book she has read and she will say to me, “you have to read this.” I take her recommendations to heart because she has never steered me wrong. They are always very interesting books and ones that I would probably not pick up and decide to read had she not recommended it to me.

I had heard about The Hunger Games book a while ago and thought that it was not a book I wanted to read. I remember my oldest daughter coming home a few years ago and telling me about The Hunger Games book and that many kids in her class were reading it but she didn’t want to read it because it sounded sad to her. The Hunger Games is a young adult book but I know many adults that couldn’t put it down.

I had The Hunger Games book in my possession for several months before I really started it. Well, I sort of started it and immediately wondered why my friend thought I would like it. So I stopped reading it and took it back to her, letting her know I didn’t really think this was a book for me. She assured me that it was. She said I really need to read it as I will gain something from it. So, I trusted her guidance and took the book with me on our Christmas vacation trip. We had a long flight for this trip so I thought having a book to read would be helpful.

Well, I didn’t start the book on the plane but instead took a quiet afternoon while everyone else was doing other things and finally began reading The Hunger Games. I had decided to allow myself to really take the book in and expand my mind and allow myself to think outside of what I know and have personally experienced. Once I got into the book, I could not put it down! I finished within 24 hours and I wanted more. I wanted to know more, I wanted to see what happened to the characters, I just wanted more!

I quickly realized there were two more books that continued the story, and I thought I could just go online and get an idea of what happened in the other two books. I did look online and I got some information about how the story continued but I still wanted more. I had questions I wanted answered and the only way to get the answers was to read the next two books.

Once back home from our vacation, I got book two, Catching Fire.  I thought, maybe my answers will be answered and then I can skip the third book. Well, I started and finished that book within nine hours. I was hooked. I quickly ordered book three, Mockingjay. As soon as I got the book in the mail, I set aside an afternoon and read it all in one sitting.

The Hunger Games trilogy makes you think in ways in which you have probably never thought. It is about war, love, survival, peace, struggle, strength and much more. These books are not the kind of book I would typically recommend but I can’t stop thinking about them so I decided I have to share it with you because they do get you thinking and thinking in ways that you may have never thought before.

I had to set aside what I know and what I have experienced in my life and give myself permission to just go with the story. One thing that stopped me from reading it the first time I started it was that I was imagining my two daughters in situations that the characters were in. So I decided I needed to stop doing that and just get into the story and not put what I know and have experienced into it. I had to let my imagination be with the book. That worked for the most part, but you can’t read these books and not think about your own life to some degree. It brings up so many things that I had never thought about before. These books make you think and make you think beyond your everyday thinking. I felt so connected to the main characters. It was different than any other book I have read before.

The movie for The Hunger Games is coming out soon, and while I can’t wait to see the movie I treasure the books. I seriously do. They are sitting on my bookshelf next to some of my favorite inspirational books I have ever read. Well, actually the last two are because the first one, The Hunger Games, was my girlfriends. I am tempted to actually buy it so that I have all three. I am sure that I will do that because it is a keeper.

Everyone I know that has read these books has the same feeling of not being able to put it down. It is intense, it will bring emotions to you and it will expand your thinking. In fact, there are new things I want to learn about because of these books. Things I never had an interest in learning before. I am grateful for my friend for encouraging me to read The Hunger Games, I am grateful that even when I thought it wasn’t a book for me, she insisted that it was a book for me and that I would benefit from reading and she was so right! These books have shifted something in me that I can’t really explain fully and I am glad I read all three.

So if you want to think expand your thinking and read a story that will touch you on many different levels and emotions I encourage you to read The Hunger Games books. Be prepared though that once you really get into it you will likely have a hard time putting it down.