1868 - World War Z

I never for a second expected much similarity to the book.  So there's that.  And, to be honest, given that the book takes place 10 years after the outbreak having it take place during it's inception makes a lot more sense.  Also we're so used to zombie stories that take place within small groups of regular people, it's fun to see a globe trotting zombie adventure and a different side of that tale.  Everyone's going to have their opinion on the zombies, but I thought they worked well for what they were going for.  The chattering teeth one was wonderfully creepy.  There's some really fun, smart, inventive things going on here on both sides of it.  A zombie action adventure film with a big old heart.  I liked it.

World War Z

I've been a little zombie nerd ever since I started reading The Walking Dead comic.  Whenever I'm reading something in this genre I can't help but just see the world differently.  Take stock of the useless stuff people do and buy, how none of it would matter once the Zombie Apocalypse started.  I joined a gym, which may or may not have had anything to do with it :)  I'm not insane, I have no belief that there will be a zombie outbreak - but what an interesting subject.  You can't tell a zombie story without it really being a social commentary.  Zombie stories are always about the break down of society, and World War Z, is ultimately about - what will you do to survive?  Who will you become?  It's told through interviews with survivors and chronologically talks about just before the outbreak, through "The Great Panic", into the War with the Zombies, and then the aftermath.  I found the first two thirds to be pretty damn riveting, and then it died off really fast - the aftermath was a little less interesting to me.  The episodic nature of it starts to take it's toll and you just feel the need to get through it.
Apparently the feature film version that's coming out has very little to do with the actual book (no surprise since the book has no real protagonist outside of, I guess, the interviewer).
It's a book that's pretty good when you think about how much thought into the world Max Brooks has put into it, different countries, groups of people, etc... ideology.  It's a dark and somewhat uplifting book.  If you're a zombie-nerd you've probably already read it - but if you're new to the zombie world, give it a shot along with his Zombie Survival Guide.

The Zombie Survival Guide

For all that I've written about zombies lately I should almost start labeling some of these blogs with that as a category. I'm still trying to figure out what my fascination with the subject is. I think it stems from the fact that these stories deal more with the human condition than they do gore or horror really. They deal with the idea of - what are people made of when put into the worst possible situations - at their core, what are people made up of?
The title of the book says it all - it's about how to survive in a world where zombies exist, large and small. The book itself is played completely straight. It's not intending to be goofy, it's more like Welle's War of the World telecast - in fact a conspiracy theorist could argue that perhaps this book is real - given how it's final section in the book deals with alleged outbreaks and their cover-ups.
Because of how seriously the book takes itself in the form of a survival guide there is no ongoing narrative, which is something that usually drives me in wanting to invest in something. Instead what we get is Brooks explaining to us a world, not far off from our own, and how we can use the world that we live in to fight off the undead masses.
I pick this and World War Z up at the same time, but I think I'm going to try and hold off from reading that right away. I've become bad about reading books in recent years and so I'm going to put a few others ahead of it. All in all this is a book that's a lot of fun if you're into the idea of zombies at all. It's the kind of book that you can pick up and read a bit at a time and then come back to later - so there is a bit of a coffee table vibe to it in that sense, which might help those who are only casually interested. And if you already love this book a quick internet search reveals that there are hordes of merchandise that you can purchase to go along with it including calendars, kits, etc...
The one really interesting thing about reading all of this zombie literature is that you can't help but think how well you yourself would fare in the zombie apocalypse. Too many variables to give an accurate and honest answer - but at the very least, having read what I've read - I'd like to think I'd at least have a fighting chance!