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“Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.” Whoa. So deeeeeeeeeep. That line, from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is the most highlighted passage of all time on the Kindle.
What’s crazy is that the fauxdeep line is nearly two times as popular as the second most highlighted passage, which is also from The Hunger Games trilogy. In fact, The Hunger Games trilogy completely dominates the most popular list. Well, “dominates” doesn’t even quite describe it, it pretty much is the list. 20 out of the 25 most highlighted passages are from the series, which include golden nuggets like:
“I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you,” Peeta replies.
That was 5th place. This is 11th:
“District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety”
And for some reason, this at 15th:
He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained.
What is it about The Hunger Games that makes people want to highlight the heck out of it? [Amazon via The Daily What]
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Highlight: The Nearby Social Network
It’s read mostly by teenagers who think ‘Wow, my friends won’t think I’m as hideously shallow if I post this on my facebook wall.’
My personal notes on my Kindle consist almost entirely of quotes from Tyrion from the “A Game of Thrones” books, plus one by the mage-lady to do with Khal, where she gives an epic lecture about life. (Did that make it to the TV series? I don’t recall)
I suppose crappy quotes are expected, since most ‘old-style’ avid readers kind of like the solitude of it and don’t want to tweet every line that makes them go “ooooohh”.
Hunger Games? Oh Battle Royale for kids.
Though I guess this shows the Kindle has a decent hold on the younger market then previously thought.
I can honestly say that I have never been reading a book for pleasure and felt the need or desire to highlight text. If a line has merit and meaning for me, I’ll remember it. If I don’t remember it, it clearly wasn’t interesting enough to remember.
I like to highlight whole passages or just single words that mean absolutely nothing (like ‘eskimo’ in any book where it appears, as a reference to the movie ‘Heathers’), in books that I’m handing off to other people or giving away to charity.
Let the next reader ponder the meaning… if they can find one.
Well I think the same thing but always forget, no matter how clever the quote was. Of course, if I do highlight something, I never go back looking for it anyway
I kinda wish I did though.. Steven Eriksons books had some seriously cool quotes I wish I could remember to use in every day conversation
Having just read the three books over the weekend, I can safely say it’s not ‘Battle Royale for kids’. The only common denominator is that there is a battle royale of sorts, but unlike the movie (BR), the contestants/victims vary in age; From 14 to 80+.
While the first book was mildly entertaining, the second and third only highlight how incredibly stupid the main character is. I can’t stress this enough, she’s ridiculously stupid and self-absorbed. Sure, you can excuse her naivety as she’s a village girl who’s led a sheltered life. But her constant temper tantrums soon started irritating me. She literally lost her rag in almost every chapter.
Couple that with the truly awful pseudo-psychological and historical observations made by the author, you start wondering why you hadn’t written a book and gotten rich too – it seems so bloody easy! By the end it was clear to me why this book (and film) had been so successful in the US. In fact, it’s not hard to see why American teenagers (or teenagers everywhere) relate so well to Katniss Everdeen.
She’s a complete moron.
Are you sure you read the right books? “12 to 18″ is the eligible age in the Hunger Games.
You obviously haven’t read the sequels… /quasi-spoiler
My bad. I seem to have forgotten all but the first book.
As I own a Kindle, am 16 years old and have read The Hunger Games trilogy, I can tell you there are far better passages throughout the trilogy than those. I honestly don’t see why people see the trilogy as being a romantic affair – it’s not, I don’t think Katniss even loves Peeta at all in the first two books… Possibly in the third, but it’s still hard to say. I don’t get gripped by the emotions really… Maybe I just enjoy the goriness (okay, it’s not overly gory.) I’m not sure.
I personally see the trilogy as being a well-written, gripping saga, but lacking originality in many aspects. I did not know the plot of Battle Royale before I read the comments here, but now I do feel slightly cheated by the HG trilogy. I knew from the beginning that it had elements of Theseus and the Minotaur, Spartacus and the Roman Gladiators woven into it though. But of course it’s fine to use mythology and history for a backdrop for your story – using modern films or texts, however, I feel that to be too far, and I’m astounded by how closely related BR and the HG are.
Oh, and finally, I can report that the Kindle is doing tremendously in the teenage market around where I live, along with e-readers in general. In my class of 30, I think 5 own e-readers, including myself, so if we were to say 1/6 of my school had e-readers, that would be about 250 people – which I think is pretty good.