The Hunger Games originally uploaded by Kendra Miller

A while back, The Wife brought home The Hunger Games as it was her book club’s selection for the month. While I routinely read her book club books and heard great things about this one all over the web and Twittersphere but I really didn’t think I’d like it nearly as much as everyone else due to the fact that it was tailored towards the younger crowd and was a genre which I normally find uninteresting. Even so I picked it up and read through it in about a day, thoroughly enjoying it–all the way up until the cliffhanger ending.

While I have no intention of giving anything away, the main premise of the story is that a some future point in time there is a war and the winners of this war insist that from then on 24 children (12 – 18 years of age) are pitted against each other each year in a fight to the death. This is meant to serve as a reminder of the war and that the winners were not only victorious but that they control everything which happens in the nation. This yearly fight is like Survivor on steroids. The children are provided weapons, tools, and food and are sent off into the wild in an attempt to outsmart the others and eventually stand as the final person standing.

Even though the book is short and has big text, it is incredibly detailed and paints a vivid story of the lives of the inhabitants of the nation, the relationships they have, the arena in which the children fight, and especially the political and socioeconomic issues the people face. The author grabs ahold of your attention and doesn’t let go throughout the book leaving you clamoring for more when you reach the end. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly suggest you go out and do so–especially before seeing the recently released movie.

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The Wife and I went to see The Hunger Games movie on Sunday. While the crowds were atrocious earlier in the weekend, by 7:45 on Sunday evening there were plenty of open seats available in Apple Valley’s Carmike Cinema. We were armed with $15 worth of gummi bears (1 box), popcorn (of which we ate 5 handfuls total before later returning it to get our money back much to the displeasure of the moronic Assistant Manager who argued it wasn’t bad but refused to taste ours replying with, “ewwww, no, I hate popcorn.”), and a cup of flavored high fructose corn syrup and soda water.

The movie, while being quite true to the book, was pretty mediocre. I later noted how a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words but somehow 80% of the book’s content was missing even though they had 2:20+ minutes to layout what was written in 300 big-print pages. The Wife felt that unless you had read the book you would have missed a lot of what was going on in the characters’ heads as well as the real issues the people were facing living where they did.

While the movie did not drag at any point, I really have to wonder what others who may not have read the book thought about the movie. Did you think that it was a good movie? Did you realize that there was so much more going on than what was shown? Did the movie make you want to read the series? Have you read the book/series and if so what did you think of the movie? What did you think of the other two books in the series and do you think that the sequels to the first movie will be better or worse than the books? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Reader Tearitup wondered about other readers’ goals for 2012. A majority of respondents to a 2010 Lazy Lightning poll about New Year’s resolutions said they did not make New Year’s resolutions but perhaps a more general “goals list” is a better way to find out what people plan to do in 2012.

As I mentioned in 2010, I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions but I did say that I have general goals in mind. I’ve been giving it a bit more thought lately (especially after seeing Twoboot’s own post on the topic) and figured Tearitup’s idea would be a great way to get some of these loose ideas down and make me a little more accountable to meeting them.

1. More pleasure reading.

It’s been a little difficult to get motivated to read for fun when I’m busy reading 100+ pages a week for school. It’s not that I can’t read for pleasure during this time but it just seems to drain me a bit reading stuff that’s so dry.

* I intend to read at least one book a month for pleasure while taking classes and two or three during the lull between quarters.

2. Smaller portions, more salad, less beer, and healthier meals.

While we’ve been eating better meals at home recently, this has led to more leftovers for lunch which means larger lunch portions and some unfortunate weight gain.

* I intend to get back on the ball with similar eating habits which worked wonders for me back in 2007 and 2008.

3. Have more date nights with The Wife.

We have not been on a date night together without The Rooster since April. We have another scheduled for this week.

* I intend to make it a priority to get out of the house without The Rooster more often.

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What are your goals (or specific resolutions if you prefer) for 2012? Do you want to cook more meals at home? Maybe see more movies or read more books of a certain author or genre? Do you have at least one very specific goal you intend to make this year? Maybe you think resolutions/goals based on a yearly in general are a waste of time? Whatever you have to say about goals for 2012 go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.