Just Finished Rereading Christopher Paolini's Eldest

Still plugging away at Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle series of four fantasy novels, I just completed, for the second time, book #2, titled Eldest.  In it, young Eragon, along with his psychically-connected (to him) and talking dragon Saphira, go northward to live with the elves for a while and undergo training to improve their magical powers and develop a workable philosophy for dealing with both magic and war.  And it is war that he is facing, as his enemy Galbatorix is marching south to invade rebel-supporting Surda and crush the Varden rebel force there.  Meanwhile, Eragon's cousin Roran is trying to rescue the people of their hometown of Carvahall from the evil and (pretty scary) Ra'zac  by evacuating them and taking them to Surda on a boat.  Roran's trials are interesting; Eragon's training is boring.  But it all comes to a head at the climactic end of the story, which I have to admit pleasantly surprised me when I first read it years ago.  In Eldest, Paolini inserted a great theme: friends becoming enemies and enemies become friends. It set the stage for the next novel, titled Brisingr (named after a word of magic used in the series).  Brisingr was supposed to be the third novel in the originally-planned trilogy, but regrettably, Paolini decided he needed two books to express all he wanted for the series conclusion. I haven't yet read the last book, titled Inheritance, but Brisingr was so boring the first time around that I left it halfway through.  This time, though, I'm going to finish it!  But first, I'm taking a little detour by next reading the first book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, aptly titled The Hunger Games (I deliberately avoided the movie in order to read the book first)...