World War Z

Ok, continuing on with the book theme, this is my newest read...well, along with the six other books I'm reading. It's a library book though so it's jumped to the top of the reading list. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it did not make it onto The Big Read's top 100 list. However, 40 pages in, I have to say it's a good read. If you like pandemics. And zombies.

The book is written as a collection of oral histories from survivors of a world wide zombie epidemic. It's not presented as a Dawn of the Dead type typical zombie story, but as an epidemic caused by a communicable pathogen that causes zombie-like symptoms. The interviews are done with people from all walks of life and from all over the world and the path of the disease is followed through their stories. As I said, I'm only 40 pages in, but so far I love it.

After all of the excitement this morning... sorry, yesterday over the 100 Books list, I'm thinking of doing my own list. Not necessarily of books I think you should read, but more of books that I've read and loved and why. I love book lists, but they always tend towards classics or the English Lit version of what you should read. Let me rephrase that. They tend towards, IF YOU DIDN'T READ THIS THEN YOU'RE AN ILLITERATE FOOL AND PROBABLY INBRED. Who needs that? Yes, there are books that you should read. Not because if you don't you'll be a lesser person for it, but because there are some books that touch on so many other works you have read and you may not even realize it until you do. And not only other books, but movies, TV, plays, cartoons, you name it. When you go the whole, READ THIS DAMMIT route you turn it into homework. Maybe you can get a person to start reading one of those books, but are they going to enjoy it? Or are they just going to push through it to say that they've read it, or worse, give up.

I'm not saying The Big Read list is one of those, really, I just went off on a tangent. And now I'm sitting in front of my computer looking at the time and wondering what the hell I was getting at and how do I wrap this up because there's a big warm bed (with a small warm person in it) and a stack of books beside it that I'd like to go read. Ok, here's the thing. I read a lot of other peoples lists today and I heard many people, both bloggers and commentors, making excuses for not having read the list. The list is a suggestion. The National Endowment For The Arts isn't telling you you're dumb because you haven't read these books. It's saying that these are some amazing books and we think you would really enjoy them. But you also have lives, jobs, CHILDREN, and that is a pretty steep list. If you have only read a couple, or even none, so what. You're not dead yet, you still have time. And hey, maybe you didn't like anything that was on that list. Maybe you only like science-fiction. Or Danielle Steele. So what. In the end, I think all that really matters is that you do read. And if you have children, go read to them. Because that is even more important.

*Are you wondering how you got here from a review of book about zombies? Me too.