I'm relying on the rabble to help this cultural recluse re-adapt to western society. I'd never even HEARD of The Hunger Games before taking my trip to Canada. Now it's all over! Both movie and book trilogy are all what everyone is talking about.

Could someone please help explain what the appeal is here? I got the one-liner explanation from IMDB, but surely it doesn't take an entire book trilogy to tell such a seemingly simple story...

So in a nutshell... What are the books about? Are they worth reading? And is the movie worth watching?

Then I can go crawl back under my Asian rock where things like this take many months and even years to surface in popular culture.