Go ahead and walk on over to Amazon’s ‘Best Seller’s Page.’ At the time of this writing, the world’s biggest bookseller — with over six million titles available for your purchase if their marketing is to be believed (and why doubt it?) — the top three books are The Hunger Games trilogy. Number Five is the set package of the same books and number fifteen is the hardcover of the first book (I suspect it would be listed higher, even at *1, except for the publication of the trade paperback). The trilogy and set hold the same top five positions in Goliath’s list of Best Sellers of 2012.
There hasn’t been this kind of chart dominance since Harry Potter and Twilight, and, as Harry’s adventures were all published before the world went Kindle mad (hence PotterMore, etc.), The Hunger Games have set records there Harry won’t touch soon. Ms. Collins is officially Kindle’s Best Selling author. Ever. The Kindle editions of the trilogy are also numbers one, two, and three in the Kindle store.
Scholastic and other book sellers are paying attention and they’re doing everything possible to put out ancillary guides to the books for Hunger Games readers wanting more and some schlock for movie viewers to carry around and look out before the film gets out to the Districts Friday. Below the jump I list the first fourteen titles out of the gate in the order of their Amazon rank, from literary guides to cookbooks (two of those). Sadly, only the Scholastic ‘companion pieces’ are listed in the Amazon Hunger Games Store, so this list may be incomplete. Please share any others you have seen or found listed elsewhere!
Coming in first, of course, the movie tie-ins from the publisher of note…
The Hunger Games: Official Illustrated Movie Companion (Scholastic) #363
But the cookbook is right up there!
Hunger Games Cookbook: From Lamb Stew to “Groosling” – More than 150 Recipes Inspired by The Hunger Games Trilogy (Adams) #515
The Hunger Games Tribute Guide (Scholastic) *522
The World of the Hunger Games (Scholastic) #597
The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games Trilogy (Smart Pop) *2507
And then a big drop in the sales numbers…
The Hunger Games Companion: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series (St. Martin’s Griffin) * 8228
Guide to the Hunger Games (Plexus) *15594
The Hunger Games Literature Guide: Common Core Standards-Based Teaching Guide (Secondary Solutions) *46467
How about these Gospel Tie-Ins?
The Hunger Games and the Gospel (Patheos) *12275 Kindle
— Author’s Blog Post on Gospel (Hat tip, Deborah!)
The Gospel According to The Hunger Games (Ann Duncan) *3581 Kindle
— Read the story behind this book by two District 12 pastors here (Hat tip, Elizabeth!)
Study Guides I, II, III
The Hunger Games (Golgotha) *12297 Kindle
Catching Fire (Golgotha) *22177 Kindle
Mockingjay (Golgotha) *7001 Kindle
An Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook and Survival Guide: How to dine, make wine, and hook a fish by line (Amazon Digital) Kindle *81247
Please share your reviews if you’ve picked up or actually read any of these books, and, again, please let me know about any Hunger Games knock-off titles I’ve missed!
Katniss the Cattail: An Unauthorized Guide to names and Symbols in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
by Valerie Estelle Frankel
But “Katniss” is not the same as the cattail plant. Katniss is the arrowhead plant. So the proper title for the book should be Katniss the Arrowhead. Not full of alliteration as the other title but accurate.
The Hunger Games and Philosophy: A Critique of Pure Treason is a collection of essays that examines the books by looking at the philosophical thought that is brought out by the narrative. If that sounds dull, it is not. The essays are accessible, well-written, thoughtful, and intriguing. A few of the essays are more about social commentary than philosophy, and one or two are forced, but overall this is a very interesting book that will give added value to the reader’s experience of the novels.
Professor Granger, are you publishing Unlocking the Hunger Games soon? I saw that it was referenced in Katniss the Cattail (above).