Eat, Pee, Read

Last month, I finished the “Hunger Games” series. All three books. In about three days. And then, after a break of a few weeks to read some other books, I read the first two books of the series again, almost as rabidly as the first time.

It’s been a while since I’ve encountered a book that’s hooked me so much that I have to devour it in a “do-nothing-until-the-book-is-finished” way. The guy who helped me at the bookstore said people who buy the first or second book come back to buy the next one unshowered and covered in crumbs. That sounds accurate and close to my experience of reading these books. But I also had a lot of time in Peace Corps to lose myself in good books — books where all you can do is eat, pee, and read (and hydrate. Gotta hydrate).

Apart from “The Hunger Games,” here is a short list of Eat, Pee, Read books I’ve devoured in the last few years:

In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
Zeitoun (Dave Eggers)
Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)
We Were the Mulvaneys (Joyce Carol Oates)
A Sunday in at the Pool in Kigali (Gil Courtemanche)
Fall on Your Knees (Ann Marie McDonald)
Waiting (Debra Ginsberg)
The Rapture of Canaan (Sheri Reynolds)
Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngoz Adiche)

I read all but the first three in Peace Corps, and this is a shortened version of the list I originally had. Each Harry Potter book I read also falls into this category.

What about you? What books have made you give up social engagements — or basic hygiene? And, if you have experienced pee-and-read with a non-fiction book, please share, as I notice that most of the books on my list are fiction.