I’ve always enjoyed reading ever since I could decipher words, but never would I have thought that I would basically dedicate my life to multiple book series’. People that don’t read often aren’t able to understand the expressed joy when engulfing yourself in typed over paper, or in today’s society, a lit-up screen.

Reading does so much more than finishing a story. You’re finishing someone’s story. The author is giving you a piece of themselves by releasing their workinto your hands.

Like Stephanie Meyers, author of The Twilight Saga and the Host, said, that when writing a book you need to create a character that you absolutely fall in love with and go from there. It made me think about main characters in the books I read and I would question what character the author chose to fall in love with.

I feel that usually this character is the one that the narrator will end up with, however, most of the time; it is the protagonist of the story. Suzanne Collins created Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games, a character’s story that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Not only are the books fantastic, but the movies are identical to the material between covers. Matching a movie to a book is a dire task given that if it doesn’t match, I feel that it almost ruins the books for me.

The actors/actresses chosen for the films could not be any better. I feel that the cast of the movies has made the books even better. It’s important to have a respected cast that connects well with one another.

For example, Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen), and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) have formed such a bond while filming these movies. They have become really close friends and that’s usually the case for a lot of casts of movies.

Both are respected and respectable people. Lawrence is still the same goofy, funny person she was when she was doing indie films. Even though she is an Oscar winning actress, it seems she is able to maintain the natural aspects of life.

She’s a great role model because she roots for girls to feel comfortable in their own bodies and not have to feel like they need to match Hollywood stereotypes. Also, she helps with dozens of charities and organizations and tries to give back what she has earned.

While The Hunger Games is now seen as a blockbuster and another way for people in Hollywood to make money, I see the true meaning and depth behind it. It’s about one person making a difference because they realize how corrupt society has become.

It’s about loving each other and fighting till the end for those loved ones. It’s about sticking up for what is right and speaking for those who have no voice or choice to speak. It’s foreshadowing a society of what we may become and Collins tells us to never forget what is right.

Collins showed us that even when times are hard and you’ve lost everything that mattered to you the most, you can get out of that hardship with love. People can work together to fix each other and that’s a beautiful concept.

Reading books allows us to imagine what may have been unimaginable. We get to be the main character or at least we get to follow the main character throughout their journey.

While some people feel that football or a video game is something important to them and buy all the products relating to that hobby, that’s how I am with reading. I want everything I can get my hands on and I want to participate in any “Meet and Greets” of the cast because it allows me to enter that world of fiction once again.

I get to disappear from everyday stress when I’m reading a book I love and if I have some sort of merchandise that represents such a book, it reminds me of that world. Some would call this crave with The Hunger Games an obsession, but I have come to know it as a lifestyle.