The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead. By Max Brooks, iIlustrated by Max Werner. Three Rivers Press, New York; 2003.
A lot of people don’t take zombies seriously. But what if you were forced to consider the practical aspects of a mass zombie outbreak? Would you know what to do? How to arm yourself? Where to take shelter and what to avoid?
For the serious minded zombie survivalist, or mildly curious, The Zombie Survival Guide can answer these questions. Author Max Brooks takes an in depth look at weapons, both melee and ranged, firearms and improvised; combat techniques; defensive strategies on the run and at home; the pros and cons of different terrain; attack plans and positions; transportation; and techniques for long term survival in a post apocalypic landscape.
In this book, a reader will find detailed accounts of historical encounters with the living dead, simple diagrams of weapons and techniques, helpful lists of equipment, and useful tips, all laid out in a simple reference guide for careful study, or quick perusal.
Taken seriously or not, it remains both thoughtful and entertaining. Recommended for ages 13 and up. The language is simple and the sections are short for younger readers, but it does, needless to say, reference violence, gore, and weapon skills.
About Making This Booktalk
Making this booktalk was easy, once I came up with the idea of getting other people to do the talking for me. I’ve tried talking into a camera before and it’s not very compelling viewing, and it’s just as awkward to make. On the other hand, I don’t mind talking to people, and I don’t mind talking in front of people. The problem with videos is scripts. There could be a lot to be said for preparation, and I brought a list of questions with me to the Toronto Zombie Walk, but I never used it accept once, and that didn’t go over very well. It wasn’t necessary. Going to a zombie walk and talking to people about zombies is a pretty easy task. Actually, there were a lot of cameras around, professional as well as amateur. It wasn’t a very unusual occurrence on that day in Toronto to walk up to a random group of strangers and interview them with a camera, or in my case, cell phone. No one refused an interview and everyone was very much in the zombie spirit.
I interviewed a dozen groups and filmed about five minutes of zombies walking. Each interview lasted two to five minutes and I was looking for amusing sound bites; two to three seconds that seemed humourous or imaginative, in the spirit of the book. The appeal factor of the Zombie Survival Guide is that it engages the reader’s imagination by making them think about what they would do in this extremely liberating situation; what available weapons they might used to bash in skulls, what vehicles they would steal to escape a violent city, where they would go it they could go anywhere. So, naturally the best way to communicate the essence of the book is to show people thinking and talking about these things. It’s morbid, it’s amusing, and it’s creative. If a person watching this booktalk begins to daydream among these hypotheticals, then they will enjoy this book. Because that’s what it’s about. That’s what zombies are about, and that’s why they’re fun. Interviewing, editing, mixing, listening, watching and thinking about zombies was fun. This was an easy booktalk to make.
