Book 1 Project

My idea to create a fan experience for Mockingjay and the rest of The Hunger Games Trilogy is to have a side story of what happened to Gale. At the end of the trilogy, the guy Katniss spends the rest of her life with is Peeta, “The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that” (Collins 388). With Gale on the other hand, it says he got a special job in District 2, but it doesn’t mention what exactly he did or what happened to him after he got the job, “I  have to remind myself that Gal’s in 2 with a fancy job, probably kissing another pair of lips” (Collins 385). Also, did Gale suffer any physical injuries, “Gale, who took two bullets in an escape attempt” (Collins 361), that disabled him years after the war and/or suffer from PTSD (Post traumatic Stress Disorder)? From all of these unanswered questions, I was thinking that another story about what happened to Gale would be a good idea to end my curiosity. I think people would enjoy it because it reminds me of the whole Team Edward/Team Jacob debate from the Twilight Saga. For the idea of the story for Gale,  a Mad Lib is what might work. Plus, it gives the people a chance to come up with their own ending to Gale’s fate.

In a Mad Lib, the author/ reader is allowed to come up with his/her own twists to the given plot. In the packet of plot outlines, there can be many adventures that Gale goes on after the war. For example, one could be about his special job while another can be about him making a visit to District 12 twenty years after the war to see how Katniss and Peeta are doing. The author-writer can make the story as dramatic or cut to the chase as they want, as serious or as goofy as they want it.

Gale’s life after the story doesn’t have to be the only way to bring out a fan experience. A video game of the war itself can attract fans of the trilogy to play it. In the game, you could be playing as one of the main characters such as Boggs, Gale, Katniss, etc. and fight on the front lines of the war in each district or go on the secret mission to liberate the previous Hunger Games victors that the Capitol took prisoner like they did in Mockingjay.  As a special feature in the game, you could compete in the Hunger Games itself or go hunting in the woods as they did in The Hunger Games or Catching Fire.

I think people would want to buy the game because they want another way to live out the trilogy and a video game would do the trick. It’s kind of like how every action movie that has come out recently. For example take Batman; he started off as a character in a series of comics. Twenty years later or so, they make a Batman TV show. Another 15 years past and they continue to expand the Batman franchise with the production of movies and that continues on today with The Dark Knight Rises when it was released in July 2012. They expanded the franchise even further, they made the Batman series of video games that still are being made today with the release of Batman Arkham Origins when it was released in October 2013.

                People like to experience the ways of characters that they read about or see in a movie. The only way people would want to continue to pretend that they are these characters is by means of trendy items. Today, people like to fill out Mad Libs and play video games. Using these two items that people flock to is a great way in my mind to expand not only the book I read in Mockingjay, but The Hunger Games Trilogy as well.

My Recap of Mockingjay

A few days ago, I finished reading Suzanne Collins Mockingjay. I read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire a couple years ago, but never got around to reading the final book of the trilogy. I had the opportunity this year and I enjoyed the book. Even though I liked it, I was a little dissapointed by it. I felt like it rushed through very quickly when Katniss was at places. What I mean is that I would read and she was at one location and a few pages later she was at a different location. I was also hoping that the final battle would be longer. On the good side however, I like how Katniss was able to fight on the front lines of the war at times dispite the fact that she was ordered to kind of stay away from the main fighting. Overall, I highly recommend reading it, only after you read the first two books of the series.

Post 2: What is a book?

A book is a story that can be as complex or as simple as you want, as long or short as you want, and has as many characters that are needed to make a good story. In other words, a book is a story. A book is like a baseball game, it can be played anywhere, different events occur, there are different people participate,  a game can end very early or very late, anything can happen and people still come back to watch (or read in the books case) for the entertainment. I recently read some excerpts from the book The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, and the many writers agree that there is something special about reading from a printed book rather than an electrical version and I agree. I feel that its cooler to read from a book rather than reading a book from an electrical device. Maybe it's me because I like to have a hard copy of everything. I don't trust electrical files all that much so I probably can't trust that an electrical version of a book will be readily available to read if the device gets a virus or the device were to freeze. Like I said, I don't read for pleasure a lot, but when I do, I want to read from a printed copy of a book. What I look for in a book is that the story is good, perferrably part of a series, the characters seem relateable to my life, age or activities I do, and the story always contains lots of action that will keep me from putting down the book, like battles or games in sports stories. Not to mention, a little bit of humor in the stroy will attract me even more but it won't hurt my opinion of the book if it lacks this element.

Post #1: Why I read

The main reason I read is to be informed about concepts, current events, or past events. After watching this video, I could agree with some of these peoples reasons like exiting into a different time or place in the universe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2VmDrp0sAU&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

 

Going back to the main reason for why I read is I want to know whats going on around me. One of the worst feelings for me is that people talk things that I don't know. I have to listen to the conversation despite my cluelessness and wait until a later time to do my own reasearch about the topic so I can understaned their experience or opinion about the event. Or sometimes its a word that they throw in that I don't know what the meaning is.

 

I'm a guy who doesn't read unless I am "forced" to read, its rare for me to read for pleasure. Most of these times include reading for school. When I'm reading for school, I kind of find myself right there in the scenario with the characters like some of the people in the video. It's kind of cool how books work in that way. It makes me question whether I did things in the book in reality or not.