Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 12 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

During our recent family vacation road trip, we all “read” (listened to) the audiobook version of Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games.” We spent almost 68 hours in the car, so we had no trouble getting through all 11 hours of it.

I had never heard of this book but my daughter apparently learned about it through classmates so my wife purchased the audiobook from iTunes before we left. Since I knew nothing going in, other than it was young adult fiction, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The excerpt I included at the beginning of this post does a pretty good job of summing up the plot of the novel, so I won’t attempt to elaborate on that any more. It was a pretty good (although sometimes brutal) story. We started out listening to only short bits at a time, intending it to be an occasional distraction from other activities in the car, but soon we were really into it and going through 2 hours at a time easily. Carolyn McCormick‘s reading of the novel was well executed (although $26 for an audiobook seems a bit much).

In the week since we’ve gotten back from vacation, my daughter has already borrowed (and finished!) the next two books in the trilogy: “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay.” I wonder if I should mention to her that the movie is coming out next year. I guess we’ll need something to look forward to once the Harry Potter movies are all done.