There appears to be a running theme in my reading lately! If reading is your passion – and we’ve talked about passion being a fire – have I got some books for you!
I’ve just read “Catching Fire: The second book of the Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, and also “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, in the form of a graphic novel adaption, by Tim Hamilton. What a great couple of books!
Suzanne Collin’s Catching Fire is the second book of the “Hunger Games” series. It’s clearly a sequel, and is also the prequel to the final book. While I found that the first book “Hunger Games” could be a stand alone story, I didn’t think this could be. If the reader had not read the first book, it would leave the reader wondering how this was set up and at the end, what happens next! It’s a cliff hanger alright!
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark competed in and survived the Hunger Games, and now they are set to live, with their families, in the winners village with Hamich. But the Capital was humiliated that they both survived, so now it’s payback time!
It’s the 75th Annual Hunger Games, with new, special rules. The participants of the Hunger Games will be chosen from the pool of previous winners! Katniss will be going into the Hunger Games again! Can she survive a second time?
Read this fabulous sequel in the Hunger Games series for another nail-biting adventure with the “Girl On Fire!”
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My second book was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, adapted as a graphic novel by Tim Hamilton. If you ever have a hard time getting a student to read, I recommend this book! A great story, in a quick, easy read is just the ticket!
In Bradbury’s dystopian world, firemen don’t fight fires, they start them to burn books! Of course, it’s always been like this, or has it?! (cue melodramatic music!)
Our hero, Montag, finds a Bible at one of his fire events. He seeks out a professor to help him understand the “magic” of books. The professor explains, “Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget…The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
When the Chief requires Montag to burn his own home and the books hidden within he explains the beauty of fire is “…that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it.”
The only books left, were those in the memories of professors, teachers and book lovers. These would passed down by oral tradition to later generations, perhaps to be printed again someday.
In our own history, I can only imagine the knowledge and classical texts which were lost in the sacking and burning attacks on the Imperial Library of Constantinople in 1204 AD and 1453 AD. And recently, the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack, because a sect of society was offended. Authorities investigated people who purchased the first magazine after the attack! Are we going in the same direction as Fahrenheit 451?
Will history be erased and replaced by a new history if we lose our books? Will we lose the beauty and magic? What do you think?
Peanut Butter Theater 
I have read both of these books and love them both! Great recommendations! I couldn’t have summarized them better myself without giving it away. If I was someone who hasn’t read these already, your blog post would definitely make me want to!
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Thank you! I hate to give it all away in a review, so I try to give just enough to make it interesting. This time I got right! 🙂
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I’ve tried to read Fahrenheit 451 a few times and always abandoned it. It’s one of those classics that may be on my permanent Shelf of Shame. (Along with Walden and Moby Dick and many others!) (And look! I’m a perfectly well-adjusted very smart voracious reader. You really CAN have a good life without reading the classics! *stepping off soapbox*) But in a graphic novel format? Well, that appeals to me. I LOVE graphic novels. Can’t get enough of them. Thanks for the recommendation! I also really liked Catching Fire. It might be my favorite of the trilogy. Are you planning to read Mockingjay next?
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As much as I like Ray Bradbury, the graphic novel was probably the best way for me to digest this intense story.
I’m already onto to Mockingjay. It’s the FIRST time ever that I’ve read the book prior to seeing the movie. This will be a great experiment for me to see how the book supports the movie story, and how much of my information from the book comes out in the movie too!
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I love the hunger games series!!!!!!!! though I have never read the other books I have heard good things.
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Those great things are true – a very good series, that will keep you spellbound!
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I can relate to what you said about having a running theme about passion in your blog posts. The exact thing has been happening to me. It seem whatever I am blogging about ends up having a point about passionate learning or teaching.
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Those are your interests right now. If your interest turned to gardening for the season, then you’d be reading that theme. I think the students will read books about their interests as well.
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