May the odds be ever in your favor.

It's very rare that a book or series of books with captivate me so much that I am unable to put them down. Reading The Hunger Games was totally captivating. I have to say, the first book had me nail biting and shivering for the characters. I read the book in two or three days and during that time, I didn't get to bed before 1:00 am. I paid attention to so many of the details and really tried to make the book last.

After I finished the first book, we were in a large town nearby and I wanted to buy the 2nd and 3rd book at Walmart. Walmart online had the books for nearly $3.00 cheaper (per book) if you delivered them to the store to pick them up. So, we thought we would ask if they would just honor the price difference. I mean really, do you think the big Walmart in the sky is going to ship 2 books to the Walmart store and have them there and ready for me? Or do you think some Walmart employee was going to just go grab the two books off the shelf and set them aside for me. I think the latter is probably what would happen! Well, they wouldn't honor the prices... grr...

So, based on principle, we didn't buy the books that night. The next day, I decided I couldn't wait to have them shipped from somewhere and I'd just go to a nearby smaller town with a Walmart there and pay the ugly Walmart creature it's money. But, to my surprise, they DID NOT have books 2 and 3. WHAT? C'mon! This is only the most popular series out now! So, fed up with Walmart, I finally went to Kmart... knowing I'd pay more but now absolutely against feeding the Walmart creature any of my money.

I got the books, paid $3.00 more for them than the online Walmart price and was happy that I finally had my hands on them.

If you haven't had a chance to read this series, add it to your Goodreads! If you're not familiar with Goodreads, it's a website where you can create a series of bookshelves of books you'd like to read, books you've read, and books you are reading. I'm sure you can create more shelves, but I'm set up pretty basic right now. You can also add friends to your Goodreads. You can take a look at what books they are reading and and them to your shelves. Another benefit to Goodreads is they can recommend books for you based on what you've read and liked. Then, I request them from my local library through inter-library loan. I start that process while I'm still reading another book to give my library time to get my requested book. I also like the site because the books have been rated by other readers.

So, I'll be back in Panem once again, looking forward to another round of The Hunger Games. Effie, Haymitch, Peeta, Katniss, Gale, all my favorite characters. I know things will turn out the same, but maybe I'll catch some details that were overlooked the first time. Oh, I should point out something funny too... A few weeks ago, I borrowed Tina Fey's book from a friend. Unbeknownst to me, my son took my booklight, stirred it into some Vicks Vaporub, and smeared it on the back of her book. She very sweetly declined a new copy of the book and just put the jacket back on it. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine borrowed the first Hunger Games book. While she was reading it, she (or one of her kids) got a lot of butter on it! HA! When she returned my book, she presented my babysitter with a new copy of the book (which I would've declined if I was there!) How funny!! We moms try to save a little money by borrowing books and then our kids make us end up buying them anyway! PS: Thanks, Kimberly for being so gracious!