The Hunger Games Book Club

Awhile ago, I signed up to be part of a Hunger Games book club for the month of September at The Book Junkie's Bookshelf.  Every week the participants will address a question posted and it will be a great way for us all to go back to the beginning after rushing through Mockingjay!

I've already read and reviewed The Hunger Games pretty recently but I wanted to reread it before trying to share its awesomeness with some of my friends.  The question for today is:

For those of us who have read The Hunger Games before what is it about the book that you decided to pick it back up and discuss it as part of a group? Those of us who haven't read The Hunger Games yet what are your pre-conceived notions about the book, what are your hopes for the book? Has anyone read other books by Ms. Collins outside of The Hunger Games trilogy? What are your thoughts on her other works? 

Last part first, I've never read any other books by Ms. Collins although I'm intrigued by the fact that she wrote for television; I think some parts of HG would work exceptionally well visually, even moreso than in text.

And I wanted to have the group experience of reading HG because I picked it up after feeling like I was the last book blogger to read it (I know I'm not but of the ones I follow, it sure felt like it!)  Now I can experience almost like the first time and bounce ideas and thoughts of off other people whose first time it actually is.  Plus I only had the chance to read it once so I wanted to give it a slow close read instead of the speeding through I did before.  Now that I know what happens next, I should be able to go slower.