Fame is a double-edged sword. When everybody is watching and reporting on everything you do, most normal people stop caring about what you do. Even if that something is reading our favorite trilogy.
Don’t get us wrong– if a friend of ours reads The Hunger Games and talks about it, we get excited. We gush about the book with them. We squee at pictures of them reading it.
But when a celebrity is plastered all over the national news media because they were “caught” reading one of the books in The Hunger Games trilogy, all we can think is “SO WHAT?”
Seriously! Why is it so cool that a celebrity be photographed reading something that’s already been massively popular for years? Does it somehow make them more hip and relative? Are fans supposed to think they’re just like Reese Witherspoon because she was spotted reading Catching Fire poolside while vacationing in Rio? The big story over the past couple weeks has been that LeBron James has continuously been reading the trilogy in the locker room before games.
First, let’s clear this up– No celebrity is ever “caught” reading something. If they’re out in public, most celebrities realize that they’ll likely be spotted and probably be photographed. There’s a reason they get photographed reading things like The Hunger Games instead of trashy romance novels (and we’re positive that some celebrities read those): It’s good for their image. We’re not saying they don’t genuinely want to read the books, just that they make a conscious decision to do so in places where they will likely be seen. This is especially true of LeBron, because everyone who’s ever followed sports knows that locker rooms are ALWAYS teeming with reporters during playoffs.
Riddle me this: Why are the celebrities reading the series important? Millions of people around the world share a deep fascination with these books and work on great causes in the name of them, yet they barely get an eyelash blinked in their general direction. But a snapshot of a celebrity reading Mockingjay comes around and we’re supposed to jump up and yell “HEY MIKEY! HE LIKES IT!”
We’re not even talking about the people who openly display their love for the series on a social platform without any provocation from media. We’re strictly talking photos. We’re not going to kneel at the alter of Katharine McPhee because she once read The Hunger Games in the middle of Central Park, so maybe the media should stop acting like her doing so was the Eighth Wonder of the World.
I Discovered This Series Two Years before LeBron. Where’s the Article Fangirling MY Basic Reading Skills?
The Girl With The Pearl