I actually managed to finish reading a book in the last few weeks. Despite my daughter’s best efforts to distract me, I got through World War Z by Max Brooks.
It’s about a Zombie apocalypse and it’s really engrossing; far more so than the pile of parenting books that are piling up in our house that my wife expects me to read (None of them, of course, have any chapters on how to deal with a child if you’re a Zombie stuck at home – I’m hoping that Gina Ford or Penelope Leech will fill that gap soon.)
At one stage when I was alive, I used to read an awful lot – one or two novels a week at the peak of my interest. Now I’m lucky to read 2 or 3 per year. These days, a book – especially a work of fiction – has to really work hard to keep my attention.
What made World War Z easy to read was that it didn’t have a rigid story that you had to follow too closely and with great attention. It is constructed as a series of personal testimonies – each no more than a few pages long – that add up to the epic story of the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s a fabulous way of keeping your attention and creating a truly epic picture.
The book has been made into a film starring Brad Pitt. It will be released next year. I urge you to read it now, just to avoid the disappointment of the movie, which can’t possibly live up to the book’s scale and depth.
That said, if they include the scene where Zombies try to take apart a Chinese Nuclear Sub, deep beneath the sea, well I’m first in the queue for that.
If you read only one Zombie book this year…
I actually managed to finish reading a book in the last few weeks. Despite my daughter’s best efforts to distract me, I got through World War Z by Max Brooks.
It’s about a Zombie apocalypse and it’s really engrossing; far more so than the pile of parenting books that are piling up in our house that my wife expects me to read (None of them, of course, have any chapters on how to deal with a child if you’re a Zombie stuck at home – I’m hoping that Gina Ford or Penelope Leech will fill that gap soon.)
At one stage when I was alive, I used to read an awful lot – one or two novels a week at the peak of my interest. Now I’m lucky to read 2 or 3 per year. These days, a book – especially a work of fiction – has to really work hard to keep my attention.
What made World War Z easy to read was that it didn’t have a rigid story that you had to follow too closely and with great attention. It is constructed as a series of personal testimonies – each no more than a few pages long – that add up to the epic story of the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s a fabulous way of keeping your attention and creating a truly epic picture.
The book has been made into a film starring Brad Pitt. It will be released next year. I urge you to read it now, just to avoid the disappointment of the movie, which can’t possibly live up to the book’s scale and depth.
That said, if they include the scene where Zombies try to take apart a Chinese Nuclear Sub, deep beneath the sea, well I’m first in the queue for that.