So I just finished Mockingjay. The assassination of Coin did make me go, "Holy fuck!" But I'm with Consuela in wishing we got more of Katniss's rationalization for it. I mean, it's abundantly clear that Coin was just as bad as Snow (just the fact that she would even CONSIDER holding another Hunger Games, Jesus Christ), but it's a goddamn important moment, and I would have liked a few lines about how Katniss felt about it, and not getting to kill Snow. In essence, she sacrificed her chance to kill Snow, her own personal vendetta, to kill Coin, for the good of Panem. Which is kind of cool, really.

Kate, I had the same thoughts about the rest of the world! What about it?? What happened to it?? And, Consuela, I was also wondering about the pods in the Capitol. They just booby-trapped the whole town? That's insane! I could see some of the worldbuilding issues, but I didn't mind them terribly. They didn't take me out of the story or anything.

I'm not sure how I feel about the end. At least it appears that Panem is rebuilding itself nicely? For now? LOOK YOU GUYS IT'S A HAPPY ENDING. I thought it was sort of amusing and interesting that in the first book, I saw the love triangle as the standard bad boy/nice guy thing with Peeta being the bad boy and Gale being the nice guy. But in the end, it appears that I had those backwards.

It has a much better last line than HP7.

I'm going to have to let everything settle before I write a big LJ post about the trilogy, I think. It's hard to figure out my true feelings and/or be objective about the quality of the series because Collins so often defied expectations, rarely taking the easy way out. It wasn't a "safe" narrative at all.

Now I'm going to watch Battle Royale.

My attempt to recommend the series without spoiling any more than necessary.

Has anyone read The Elegance of The Hedgehog? I'd been wanting to read it, and I picked it up tonight, and I just loved it.

I need to re-read it, but I really, really enjoyed it.

I told the kids a version of the story in The Hobbit at bedtime on Friday night, and Casper was asking about it on Saturday, so we started it. Dillo listens some, but he's not really old enough, but Casper LOVES it. We're 5 chapters in, just past Riddles in the Dark (the Gollum chapter). Beats Harry Potter all hollow, in my opinion - SO much more fun for me to read.

Awesome, flea! That's great that it's fun for you to read.

Synchronicity! I started The Hobbit with Li'l Sphere last week. We've been interrupted by frequent Xmas stories, though, so we're only to the end of Chapter 3. It's a lot more fun than I remembered, though.

It's remarkably zippy. I can recall very clearly when my father read it to me, when I was 7 - his intonation on "Who are these miserable persons?" scared the pants off me. (Casper corrected me, saying, "people!")

How cool!

And wasn't the Hobbit meant to be read aloud originally?

There's a wonderful knowingly sarcastic tone that cuts through it that reminds me of A.A. Milne.

I have very fond memories of my Dad reading The Hobbit to me.