Book Review: The Zombie Survival Guide

Since we haven’t had a humor post recently (and boy do I need one), I decided to do a little review of one of my favorite books. The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks. Now who among us hasn’t felt some joy in responding to the question, “What are you prepping for” with a glib reply of “For the oncoming Zombie Invasion”? If you haven’t ever used that response, you should try it sometime, and feel the joy. As for why this book is so important to me, let me ask the following questions. Have you ever gotten to the point where reading various sources of survival or preparedness information gets a little freaky? Maybe information starts sounding very similar to each other, or maybe it all seems written to an era that expected Russian troops to come parachuting in any day? Maybe you’re just getting a little tired of the same old ex-military survival manuals and want something to add a little splash to your evening, beyond curling up with the lantern and warmed up spam. What makes this book so great is the way it was written. In reading it, you get the feel of the old school survival manual. Written as a totally factual report, it breaks down the best practices on how to survive given an outbreak of a zombie horde. Many of these will be very familiar to all, from the casual prepper to the hardcore survivalist. It gives ‘plausible’ reasons for an outbreak, ‘historic records’ of previous outbreaks, and even gets into government conspiracies. What’s not to love? If it’s any help, I realized after I read the book that the author is the son of one of my favorite movie directors, Mel Brooks. [amtap book:isbn=1400049628] [amtap book:isbn=0307346617] [amtap book:isbn=0307406458]