I just want you guys to know that it's all your fault and also to thank you.

I'd never even heard of "Hunger Games" before Pix Tweeted or Facebooked about it so I downloaded the sample to the Kindle before my Philly trip. And then, imagine the horror of reading the sample on the plane in the first few minutes of flight and not being able to download the book right away! So I loaded it as soon as I touched ground, and read it every minute that I wasn't in workshops on Wednesday and Thursday. Steve got to Philly Thursday afternoon, so since I hadn't seen him in three months, I was kind and didn't load "Catching Fire" right away. (Man, the sacrifices I make...)

So yesterday I loaded "Catching Fire" and read it on the plane home. So tonight will be "Mockingjay" and the I can finally go back and read all of your comments! I've been reading the series in a total vaccuum (I don't like knowing anyone else's opinions - not friends nor pros - on anything I read or see before taking it all in myself.)

One thing I'll say, this is the way I watched "The Wire", night after night of DVD marathons. And like then, I am so grateful to not have had to wait the year between stories like y'all did!!

I read "Hunger Games" in four hours and I'm waiting for "Catching Fire" through ILL. Is this the most graphically violent YA series ever written? My library has it classified as SF, not YA.

You've read the first one, right? Where everyone has to kill each other?

That's "Hunger Games" right?

A question I just thought of. Do you have a preferred fiction length. Flash fiction, short story, novelette, novella, novel, series?

I dislike flash fiction, and I'm not a big fan of short stories either. I like a good self-contained novel. A series that's really well done I like as well, but a lot seem to peter out.

I don't even know what "flash fiction" is! I think that means I am not qualified to answer.

Flash fiction is considered 1,000 words or less (in general).

I never thought about it before but I love a trilogy.

Thanks, Gud. I was having nightmares about Adobe Flash.

My favorite is a well-paced trilogy. Quartets are acceptable as well. Almost any time a series goes longer than that (no matter how addicted I might get), I expect an unfortunate degradation in quality. (I'm looking at you, George R. R.!)

A series of trilogies or quartets set in the same universe but with different primary characters can be awesome, too. (Tamora Pierce!)

Standalone novels are good, of course, but I prefer incredibly long books like Anathem. I tend to like epic scale, especially in Fantasy/SF (my genres of choice).