what I thought about "the zombie survival guide"

I liked this book.  It inspired me to practice shooting so I can hit the thing I'm aiming at, and it made me realize that zombies are not so scary, as long as you can keep your wits about you.  There were some inconsistencies, though--at first he says that zombies can't climb, but then he says to be careful where you put your anchor (if you're avoiding the zombies on a boat), because a zombie could climb the chain right into your boat.  What?  How can a zombie climb a chain, but not a ladder?  It's like he thinks I'm not paying close attention to his advice or something.  By the way, a trench spike is a good zombie weapon.  This is one way in which zombie defense is different from human defense.

He says that at first, when the zombie apocalypse is still in its beginning stages, the most danger will come from the marauding bands of thugs, not the zombies.  Freaking thugs, am I right?  So pretty much any End-Times scenario includes blood cults or similar, and it sucks to be a woman or a child NO MATTER WHAT.  So pumped about that. 

Go ahead and read this book.  It might depress you, but then again, it might make you feel a little better prepared for when everything goes pear-shaped, which it will. 

what I thought about "advent"

I'm kind of mad at this book, but not as mad as I could be.  I picked it up at the library, off the staff recommendations shelf, and at first when I saw that it was about a boy with strange powers whose parents didn't understand him, I was like, "Flippin heck.  Here we go through another inferior Harry Potter retread (see: The Magicians)."  But it got very different very fast, and it was so creative and so well written that I was just in love with it.  The characters were new and interesting, and the sense of place is very strong.  But then toward the end there is some heavy use of deus ex machina, and he lost me.  A whale for some reason?  Masks and open doors?  Eskimos out of nowhere?  It's like Treadwell was writing two different stories and forgot to connect them until the end, and then he was all slapdash about it, when his craftsmanship was so impressive for the rest of the book.  I felt gypped. 

I was a lot more angry until I saw that it's the first book of a trilogy.  So my criticism is conditional.  Maybe it will all make sense in a minute.  The conclusion is still a little jarring, but I will see what happens.  I'm very eager to read the next two books.  If you like fantasy or mythology you should read this book.  There is some use of the F word, if you'd rather not read that.