Or where or where have I been...

Wow, where have I been?  Totally slacking on so much.  The kids had a winter break this year, so my normal routine is off.  Not to mention, birthdays, and scouts. 
I have missed my photo challenge twice now, and the last fit club too. 
I guess I really haven't had much to blog about. 
I did finish The Hunger Games trilogy.  I really enjoyed the first two books, but I thought the third was lacking a little.  I think it was more to do with how the author developed her main character, Katniss.  I guess I pictured her mentally stronger, and I felt like she was really kind of weak in the last book, but it was pretty good.  I can already tell that I am going to be irritated with the movie.  I saw a preview, and in that tiny clip, they had already changed stuff from how it was written in the book.  Which I shouldn't be so surprised at, but I guess I don't understand why they would change that part.  I can't imagine it being so hard to film it like it was written in the book.
I have read all the Twilight series, but I have never seen any of those movies.  I keep thinking I need to watch them, but for some reason I don't seem to care either way.  I did however read all the Harry Potter books, and watched all of those movies.   I couldn't wait until the movies came out.  I love when they can take a good book and turn it into a good movie.  Sometimes though, books should be left alone.  The one book to movie that I was really disappointed in, was The Horse Whisperer.  That was such a great book, but the movie was terrible.  They totally changed it.  Are there any books to movies, that you really enjoyed or didn't?
The Oscars are on tonight!  Do you guys watch?  Every year, for a long time now (not even sure how many), my friend and I, and my husband have been predicting who the winners will be.  It has slowly grown, and now her husband is included and my husbands friend.  Anyway, most of the time my friend Kim is the winner, followed by my husband.  I am typically in last place.  I think one year, I got a total of three right.  I am just not a good predictor.  One year, I even went so far as to pick all the ones that People magazine had picked, and I still lost.  Anyway, I can't wait to see what will happen this year.  This could be my year.  I will let you know the results.
MJ

A book or two...

Two books in two days...lets just say I am tired!  I was up reading until 2AM!  What can I say, when I get a hold of a good book, I can't put it down.  I read constantly until it is finished.  Even if it is a pager here or a page there, until I find the time to just sit and read.  I finally read the first two books of The Hunger Games, trilogy.  The local radio station, that I listen to in the mornings, was talking about this book a couple weeks ago.  The one girl, Jenn, was telling this other guy Jeff, how good this book was, and he had to read it on the plane.  They were all traveling to the Super Bowl.  Then I learned that they have also turned this book into a movie, that comes out at the end of March, I believe. 
I have a Kindle, and I was reading The Swiss Family Robinson ( I ended up ordering it for my son), but got sucked into the story, myself.  I read Robinson Crusoe, when I was younger, but not that one.  I realized while reading this book, that there is no where possible that these people got ship wrecked on.  The landed on this island, that had desert like conditions in one area, jungle in another and open plains in yet another.  Then they came across every single type of creature that lives on earth.  They had animals from South America, Africa, Europe, North America, and Australia.  Penguins, walruses, kangaroos, lions, elephants, monkeys, it just never ended.  As soon as they saw an animal, they killed it, and/or captured it.  I kept thinking, that PETA, probable doesn't really like this book.  Although, it was a good story, and obviously a classic, it was kind of silly now, they never ran out of bullets, lol.  I wonder back in the day, how many people really thought there was an island like that?
So back to the Hunger Games book.  After reading Swiss Family Robinson, I saw that I had the Hunger Games already down loaded on my Kindle, and I have no idea when I did that?  I must of did that quite a while ago, because I really haven't been reading much lately.  Then I remembered I had been hearing so much about it, and now I can just read it.  Let me just say.  If you haven't read it, and you are a reader like me, that once you start you can't stop, don't read it yet, unless you have time!  I was sucked in right at the beginning.  There was really no hope.  I finished in like a day, turne around and down loaded the second, as soon as I was done and had to finish it last night.  If I had a paper copy, I have a feeling I would of laid it down, but my Kindle was screaming at me, to just finish it.  I would look, and it wold say 50% read, and then 65%, and then I was at 88%, and thought I only have 12% to read!!  I can do it!!  I almost down loaded the third and final story, but have held up.  I need a break.  I need to pace myself, lol.  I did discover, that Kindle had a program, where you can down load books free, so I think I am going to sign up for that and not actually buy the third one.  The second one was only $7, but I think free sounds even better =).  The only down fall, is you only have it on your Kindle for 2 weeks.  Which isn't a problem if the book is good and I get sucked in. 
I have also been reading presidential biographies.  I started this project shortly after the 2008 elections.  Just going through the process of selecting a president, I realized I really don't know anything about any of our past presidents.  Only 44 Americans have had the privilege of being President.  The most powerful man in the world, according to some.  I just became interested in learning more about these men.  I figured, I would start with the first, and work my way up.  I have thus far, read 6, and working on the 7th.  Yeah, not a stellar start, but to my defence, biographies can be hard to read.  Not to mention, I have purposely found books that are long, because I figured they would contain the most information.  I am currently on Andrew Jackson.  I think I got through half of his book, before I had to take it back to the library (a month over due).  It has really been fascinating to learn about our founding fathers.  I know when I get done reading their stories, I am usually thinking, that people really have no idea what hard work is.  Our founders where amazing men, who worked very hard and sacrificed much, for the love of our country. 
Wow, this post got long.  Do you like to read?  Have you read the Hunger Games?  Did you like it? Do you like biographies? 
 
MJ

And normally on Fridays, I post a pic for the photo challenge, but I totally forgot this week.  Can't imagine why....