Two years ago, I picked up a book in a store. I turned it over in my hands and looked at the cover for a while before deciding that I would buy it. I had heard about this book, but an unfortunate class experience left me knowing how it already ended. (Side note: I HATE when people ruin books) This book had a few followers already, but I never knew that a book about killing children would become such a sensation around the world.
Of course, I should have known. It was essentially a book about sports.
I wish I didn't care so much about sports. I wish I could be the person who spends the weekends knitting or planting flowers in the garden, never thinking about a team or sport, only about the project. Alas, I was never meant to be that person. I love sports. But, it is more than just love, I am passionate about sports. No, I was never very good at playing sports, but I am excellent at watching sports.
I'm also really good at yelling at the television.
I attend a prominent university with a great sports program. The inventor of the game of basketball lived and coached here, and the basketball program has a storied past. Sure, I love other sports, but nothing can take the place of basketball. I have spent more time yelling, crying, rejoicing, and cursing that team more than I care to admit. I always tell myself as March rolls around, "Now Chesney, you can't be as worked up as you were last year." But at the end of the day, I still feel like I'm going to have a panic attack and my voice is hoarse from yelling the last ten minutes of a nail-biter.
Funny enough, I sometimes have the same reactions with books.
This is where I plug the book, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. On the surface, one would think this is the worst book ever printed. It is about children thrown in an arena and forced to kill one another for food. Literally. I am not joking. It is a very popular book, and I can safely say it is in my list of top ten favorite books. I started to think about why I liked this book so much and why people are so obsessed with it as well.
My answer? Sports.
Sure, it's a bit of a stretch, but the events of this book are not too far off from a sporting event. There are competitors. There are uniforms. People watch and pick sides. The competitors fight. Someone wins. The only difference being, of course, in order to win you must kill other people. I honestly don't know what it is about the book, but I couldn't put it down. I read it straight through and even though I knew what happened in the end, I was fretting the entire way through it.
I'm pretty sure I live to feel anxious. I watch sports on the edge of my seat, and I fret until the buzzer sounds and a winner is announced. I read books so fast that I miss parts of it, but I can't help it because I have to know what happens or I might spontaneously combust. As the pages are turned and the seconds tick away, my heart pounds and my palms begin to sweat. I stand up and pace, and I can hear the crowd roaring in the background all wondering one thing...
Who is going to win?
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