The Hunger Games: Tom Sawyer It Ain't

I sprinted through the first book in The Hunger Games series while in Florida over the weekend.

The copy I worked from was a dog-eared paperback with unidentifiable splotches from food and drink spills on several pages. It had passed from my friend Amy's older daughter to Amy, who finished it an hour or so into our first poolside happy hour in their backyard.

Completing it, she asked if I wanted to read it. She gave me a brief review, and I accepted. Amy and I have been swapping books for close to 20 years. A separation of nearly 700 miles and the birth of electronic readers have conspired to almost bring that activity to a halt, but we still trade back and forth occasionally.

I had to get the book read before returning to South Carolina because Amy's younger daughter also wants to read it. Glad it was an easy read.

I suspect that if I hadn't been offered the opportunity to use someone else's copy, I wouldn't have read it. Even with all the hubbub over the movie, I wasn't dying to dive into it. Somehow I survived without reading The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings -- the Harry Potter of half a century ago. Come to think of it, I managed to get by without reading Harry Potter, and am still standing to report I only read the first book of the Twilight series.

I can hear your gasp from here.

I must say I enjoyed The Hunger Games. A fast-paced read, it kept me entertained. I heard that it was on a middle school's curriculum with some surprise. Tom Sawyer it isn't. But that's how the copy I read was introduced into the family to begin with.

I suppose it isn't much more violent than Lord of the Flies -- required reading when I was in school. But still....

I just heard on the news that there are people complaining about the movie's PG-13 rating, saying it's unfit for kids. Somehow I think if schools are giving it in book form to 11- and 12-year olds, that ship has already sailed.

Having read the book, I am now looking forward to the movie; however, I have some waiting to do. This is a rental, as far as I'm concerned.

Once it gets to Redbox, expect it in one of my $1 Movie Reviews.

Oh, and if someone comes up with a dog-eared copy of the next in the series, I'll happily read it, too.