My Obsession With Fiction

     For anyone who doesn't know - I have an obsessive personality. When I find out about something and I like it I charge ahead full force. These obsessions are usually relatively short lived. They last for a while - some as many as years. But they are never as intense as when the obsession first starts. Although I suppose that is kind of obvious. Just a list of some past obsessions - Charmed, Grey's Anatomy, RENT, Wicked (book and musical, mostly book), volleyball, Next to Normal, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath, The Good Wife, Rizzoli and Isles, New York City, Criminal Minds songs that I listen to until no one can handle it anymore, and most recently The Hunger Games. The list goes on and on. Some of these obsessions are still going on. Some aren't as strong. The only one that doesn't really exist for me anymore is Charmed. But I'm not one to turn down a few of the older episodes if I happen to catch them on the TV in the morning.
     As a child I loved fiction. Fiction was everything to me. I would devour book after book, practically living at the library. Good thing it is right down the street. I loved the stories. I loved reading. I still love reading. But high school and then college effectively pushed my love of free reading to the way back burner. I pretty much stopped reading much for fun. Granted, I did fall in love with Wicked while in high school and I did still read. But it wasn't at the rate that I read at when I was a child.
     Lately I have made my way more to nonfiction. Reading things about the abortion debate or feminism. Something that I never did. I was never a fan of nonfiction. I always wanted to be swept away to a world that wasn't real to be with a character that I loved. So falling in love with some nonfiction was a big change for me. The Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical, but still fiction and Wicked was definitely fiction. These have been my two books that I've been holding on to and refusing to let go. They were the books I would turn to when I needed that escape. I never sought out new books to read. But I've been waiting to find that story that completely takes me away. A story that I can lose myself in. It's been a long time since I was obsessed with a book.
     This summer, and by that I mean a few weeks ago, I decided to read The Hunger Games series. A friend had given me the book and I finally finished the book I was reading (Lolita). So I decided what the hell, I want to see the movie eventually and I want to have read the book first. And I had heard that they were really good. So I started it. And I couldn't put it down. I read the first one in 3 days - unheard of for me. The second one in 3 days and the 3rd one in 4. It was quite the emotional roller coaster. The first and the third were definitely my favorite. I liked the second one, just not as much the first one or the third one.
     The second and third books brought up a lot of feelings and questions for myself and my beliefs about politics. I resented the controlling nature of Snow and then of Coin. I always have. But my left leaning beliefs naturally depend on a larger government. Which leads to a lot of questions that I'm trying to work out. I loved Katniss from the beginning and I definitely was a Peeta shipper. I liked Gale too, but Peeta more. Which made some of the things in the third book upsetting.
     I loved them though. I was told they ended abruptly, but I didn't feel that way. I did have closure, which sometimes doesn't happen. And I can add them to my list of obsessions. It has been a long times since a book completely stole me away and transported me to another world and another time. It has been a long time since I fell so completely in love with a set of characters and a long time since I cried over a book. I love fiction and I found a series that has restored my faith in the genre as well as led to my most recent obsession.