[’09 Holiday Buyer’s Guide] Books

So as you well know, Christmas is just around the bend. Before your turkey and mash potato filled stomachs sag with the thought of dishing out money for people on your list, consider something more practical than socks, or underpants, consider getting them a book!

Not surprisingly, there have been a good number of new books out in the past year; a lot of them centering around popular video games in what seems to be an attempt to open gamers to the wonderful world of reading things that aren’t on our TV screens.  Here are a couple that may strike your loved one’s fancy, and as an added plus, keep you from going broke. Continue reading

[Book Review] “World War Z” by Max Brooks

worldwarz-bookZombies are pretty sweet right? For decade after decade zombie films have held the attention of people everywhere, especially in the good ol’ U S of A. It’s safe to say that Americans have a pretty hardcore obsession with the idea of a zombie apocalypse, and there’s no shortage of killer zombie films or games out there. But what about the 1% of Americans that still read books for entertainment? Are there any awesome zombie books? You’d better believe it.

I love zombie movies. They’re gory, brutal, and on occasion very disturbing. Before I had read “World War Z” I had a really hard time believing that the genre could make the leap from the big screen to printed paper. I seriously could not have been more mislead.

Max Brooks has set up “World War Z” as an expansion on his first zombie book “The Zombie Survival Guide.” The basic idea is that a disease known as “Solanum” has begun reanimating human beings as flesh starved zombies. Sounds pretty familiar, am I right? The familiar concept quickly spirals into an utterly perfect story following the human struggle to outmatch the “zombies.” Continue reading