During last night’s Movie Awards show, MTV revealed the first teaser trailer for Catching Fire, the second installment of The Hunger Games film franchise.

We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think? The trailer has already drawn more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

The trailer offers the fans glimpses of several major events in the story and a first look at Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. This adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ young-adult novel won’t be released until November 22, 2013.

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Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games dominated Facebook this year, her trilogy taking the first, second and third spots on Facebook’s Most Read Books of 2012 list.

Above, you can see Facebook’s infographic about the top books of 2012. Below, we’ve listed the top five books on that list…

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
3. Mockingjay by  Suzanne Collins
4. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

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The book is about how her family coped with her father’s year serving in Vietnam. Like her previous two series, The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games, the book focuses on themes of war. Artist James Proimos, who also worked with Collins in children’s television, will illustrate. We’ve embedded the cover image below.

Collins (pictured, via) had this statement in the release: “For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Viet Nam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those.  It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book. Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, ‘That sounds fantastic.’  I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art.  It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, ‘Do you want to do it?’  Fortunately he said yes. That afternoon, on the train ride home, the book started unfolding in my head.”

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The top five writers on the list are all literary band names. Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Nicholas Sparks, EL James and Suzanne Collins hold the top five spots, respectively. However, the magazine also listed a number of “Authors To Look Out For,” a list filled with up-and-coming authors. We’ve rounded up those top six writers below…

Here’s more about the list: “THR selected those living authors who have been most successful in shepherding their books from page to screen, balancing success in publishing (total output, sales, best-sellers) and in Hollywood (completed adaptations, projects in development, screenwriting and producing credits) while accounting for cultural influence. More power to them.”

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According to Amazon’s new Author Rank feature, Day (pictured, via) is currently the fifth most popular writer on Amazon–alongside publishing giants like James Patterson, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, and Suzanne Collins.

Interestingly enough, romance novelist Jessica Sorensen is currently the sixth most popular author at Amazon.  She is the only self-published author to make the top ten most popular authors list, and her new book rocketed to the top of our Self-Published Bestsellers List this week.

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The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling set a Goodreads record for the all-time biggest “started reading” day. Currently, more than 40,000 people have marked the book “to-read.”

The book unseated Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins as the book with the strongest “started reading” day. Insurgent by Veronica Roth holds third place. As of this writing, The Casual Vacancy has 38 percent five-star ratings on Goodreads.

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The Hunger Games novelist hit the chart with her 2004 release, Gregor the Overlander: Underland Chronicles Book One, following a special sale. Have you read this older series?

Here’s more from Book Buzz: “Why the high spot for a book that made the list only once before, back in 2007, at No. 140? Perhaps because Amazon.com on Saturday offered the e-book for a one-day-only price of $1.99, 62% off list price.”

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Snow White & the Huntsman actor Sam Claflin has landed the role of Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.

In the first hour after Lionsgate made the official announcement on Facebook, more than 22,000 fans hit the “like” button. What do you think of this choice?

Claflin’s character hails from District 4 and won his Hunger Games competition at the age of 14. Of the new characters introduced in the Catching Fire novel, he arguably enjoys the most popularity with readers. Suzanne Collins describes Finnick as a man who possess incredible beauty and sea green-colored eyes.

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The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is the bestselling book series of all time on Amazon.com. The seven-book Harry Potter series was previously held this record, calculated by combining print and Kindle eBook sales.

Sara Nelson, editorial director of books and Kindle at Amazon.com, stated.: “Interestingly, this series is only three books versus Harry Potter’s seven, and to achieve this result in just four years is a great testament to both the popularity of the work and, we think, the growth in reading digitally during that time. Customers love these books and all three titles are consistently on our Top 10 lists in both print and Kindle formats, and ‘The Hunger Games’ is also the most-borrowed book in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.”

Sales for the Scholastic series have been so high that competing publisher Penguin blamed The Hunger Games for its revenue drop this year. For readers who enjoyed the series, the Lawrence Public Library in Kansas has compiled a flowchart to help find new books to read.

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In his feature about the list, journalist Jeff Bercovici singled out Suzanne Collins, E.L. James and J.K. Rowling as rising stars on the list.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

At the height of “Fifty Shades” mania, the erotic novels were estimated to be generating as much as $1.3 million per week for their author, E.L. James. And that’s not counting the $5 million she received from Universal Pictures and Focus Films for the theatrical rights. Add it all up and James is assured of a place near the top of next year’s top authors list. (Perhaps “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer deserves a cut of that? James’s books originated as works of “Twilight” fan fiction.)

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Hunger Games

Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter: “[Lawrence's] original deal with studio Lionsgate locked her into four planned films based on the best-selling Suzanne Collins trilogy, but producers — recognizing the success of the franchise — moved to renegotiate her contract as the film became an international sensation.”

Co-stars Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson are also rumored to be seeking pay bumps.

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The publisher broke down those figures for the individual books in Suzanne Collins‘ series as well: 23 million copies of The Hunger Games; 14 million copies of Catching Fire and 13 million copies of Mockingjay. These big sales drove significant increases in revenue last year.

Here’s more from the publisher’s earnings report: “In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, revenue rose 24% to $678.5 million, from $545.3 million in the same quarter of fiscal 2011 … Strong sales in Children’s Books and International, especially of The Hunger Games trilogy, again drove substantially higher results.  Consolidated earnings per diluted share were $1.76 in the fourth quarter, compared to $0.78 a year ago. In fiscal 2012, revenue was $2,148.8 million, up 14% from $1,887.9 million a year ago.”

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In an interview with USA Today, Pattinson quashed those rumors: “I woke up this morning and saw all these things about me being cast in The Hunger Games. I was kind of curious for a second. So I called my agent… [my agent] was like no one’s going to offer you that part.”

To be fair, Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence had worked with Pattinson on the film adaptation of Sara Gruen‘s Water for Elephants.

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Here’s more from the article: “Mr. Lawrence said in a statement that he ‘fell in love with the characters’ of Ms. Collins’s novels, as well as ‘the themes and the world she created,’ adding that ‘this chapter opens all of these elements up in such a thrilling, emotional and surprising way.’” MTV reports that star actors Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson feel sad that Gary Ross did not sign up to direct the sequel film. However, they both look forward to working with Lawrence.

Lawrence is not the only new addition to The Hunger Games movie crew. Simon Beaufoy, the Oscar-winning screenwriter who adapted Slumdog Millionaire (2008), penned the first draft of the script for Catching Fire. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate is negotiating with Michael Arndt, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind Little Miss Sunshine (2006), to polish Beaufoy’s draft.

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During the past year, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received 326 reports of “attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves.” The list was part of the ALA’s 2012 State of America’s Libraries Report.

Here’s more eBook news from the report: “The rapid growth of ebooks has stimulated increasing demand for them in libraries, but libraries only have limited access to ebooks because of restrictions placed on their use by publishers. Macmillan Publishing, Simon and Schuster and Hachette Book Group refused to sell ebooks to libraries. HarperCollins imposed an arbitrary 26 loans per ebook license, and Penguin refused to let libraries lend its new titles altogether. When Random House raised ebook prices, the ALA urged it to reconsider.”

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