Running With Books: It finally happened

I really and truly finished the entire Hunger Games series and (obviously) not a minute too soon, considering that the movie based on the first book comes out March 23rd!! So I know that there is a certain excitement and rush to following a series as it grows, and there is that tantalizing anxiety to thinking that you literally cannot wait another year for the next book to come out and what are you supposed to do during that horrendously unfair wait and then oh my gosh it's here and you're exalted and it's the best feeling in the world. Anyone know what I'm talking about? In the complete opposite fashion of perpetually waiting for the next part of the story to unfold, the Hunger Games was one of a very few hit series that I sat on until all of the books had been published (and for quite a while at that.) This wasn't anything I did on purpose because typically dystopian fiction isn't really my thing. I'll admit that watching the movie trailer, combined with the fact that seemingly everyone on earth was reading this book despite their varied interests, pushed me to finally check out a copy of the Hunger Games. Soooo, I finished the trilogy in a little over 5 days and it was just as captivating and thrilling as I had heard. There was also a surprising perk to my whole "this is a series I know I will eventually read but I'm just not feeling it right now" tactic, this being that once I was finished with "The Hunger Games" I could smugly move onto "Catching Fire" and then "Mockingjay" with hardly a lapse in between. Thank goodness for that, because I got that same panicky feeling of not being able to possibly wait to find out what happens in the next book, and then, mercifully, I could just walk over to the shelf and have the next book in my hands.

But wait. Now I'm thinking, what's next? Check out the titles below for some readalikes. I surprised myself with this series, maybe some of these will do the same for you!

Legend by Marie Lu

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Running Man by Stephen King

The Unidentified by Rae Mariz

Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

Delirium by Lauren Oliver