One of my guy friends asked yesterday, "How do you fall in love with a character in a book?" I said, "Sometimes it's hard not to. It's dangerous!" And is it ever. Meg has said more than once in the past few months, "The problem is, we fall for characters." (note the double meaning.) It's hard not to fall for Peeta though, it really is.

Do guys really not fall for girls in books? I know they do for girls in movies - so maybe it has something to do with the difference of girls being more emotional and guys being more visual? We don't need to see his face, we can imagine it - we just need to know who he is - know he's loving and strong and kind and gentle - know he'd lay down his life for the one he loves, or fight. And that's more than enough for us. In fact, we'd almost rather not see his face then, we're too afraid it won't be as we pictured it... the experience of reading a book and meeting the characters becomes deeply personal and when it's suddenly turned into a film you have to expand your experience to allow others in - others who are coming in to "interpret" and negotiate the experience for you now. And I don't always like that. :/