I can't remember the last time when I sat down and read through a whole book for the heck of it. On Friday, my friends and I were browsing in a Barnes and Noble next to the restaurant we were at because one of us had to wait for a parent to pick him. At B&N, books are sometimes placed on the sides of shelves just to kind of advertise them, probably to dumb asses like us who wouldn't look at the actual shelves for books. On this shelf-siding, a number of interesting books were displayed.

The most immediately important book on that shelf was The Alphabet of Manliness. One of us owned a copy of the book, and it actually is quite hilarious. The other notable book was The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, who also authored World War Z, a novel I have not yet read about an eventual zombie apocalypse. There were two copies, which my friend and I bought, mostly for the lolz. Well, yesterday morning, I started reading it. I read for extended periods of time on and off for the next two days, and, I have to say, I'm impressed. The book seemingly "accurately" describes what an ordinary citizen should do in-case of a Solanum (the virus which causes death and reanimation) outbreak. It also describes zombie physiology and past zombie outbreaks. While the entire work is obviously fiction, Max Brooks is able to turn an impossible situation into a likely disaster.

While this book may not be the most literary of novels, I have been inspired to actively read again, something I have not done since Junior High. After I post this blog, I'm off to start reading the Lord of the Rings again. You may wonder why I would possibly need to read a thousand page epic again. Frankly, when I first read them, I stumbled through them due to my lack of comprehension when I was 12 or whatever. Hopefully by now I can read them and thoroughly interpret and enjoy them.

My only regret is that I didn't play any Dead Space... Ah, well. That can wait for another day.