Max Brooks'

I just recently purchased and red Max Brooks' "The Zombie Survival Guide". It kept my interest, and was an easy read. I did find that there were some very interesting/useful tips for suvival in zombie apocalypse that could be applied in any real disaster/apocalyptic/SHTF kinda situations.

I was wondering if any one else feels that there may be some value in this text. I was also wondering what kind of conciderations an individual should make when applying any information from The Zombie Survival Guide to real life, disaster situations?

My personal feelings are that the use of a hypothetical disaster such as zombie can be a valuable instrument to capture the interest of people that probably wouldn't be interested in texts that educate people on ways to prepare for disaster. These hypotheticals situations can also serv to attract the interest of children, installing a need to be prepared in youth at an early age.

What do you guys think?

Well the biggest difference between combat with a zombie and combat with a real enemy is that the real enemy is possibly as smart/smarter than you and can carry a weapon.

However, getting past the weapons section, the movement and basic survival situations may really come in handy some day; not just from combat with other humans but from basic survival.

I always used airsoft or any other tactical game to train for stuff like this.

When I was around 15 years old I thought Russia would soon fall back to communism and all hell would break loose. We used airsoft to train for survival and guerilla tactics. Fun stuff.

well I think the mention of roving bands of raiders and pirates are a much more real possibility then mass ivasion by international super powers. I think it is much more loikely for some distal whether contained or global, there for the information on dealing with the resulting anarchy (as seen in the wake of huricane katrina) could be invaluable.

I also think the weapons section could be valuable for individuals with little to no firearms/weapons experience, Brooks clearly high lights the pros and cons of each weapon. Most of these pros/cons arn't specifically zombie specific, but may simply be desighn perks/flaws.

Excellent Book! I bought it for my wife a few years ago! She has put many of the things to good use. She learned to shoot my shotgun; she is now willing to chop off her hair in a SHTF scenario.

This is an emerging sub-culture way to plan and organize without setting off the 'terrorist' alarms.

See this group:
zombiehunters.org...

Very thinly veiled militia, disguised in humor!

Sounds like a good book let down only by it's silly title.

Throw the title 'Zombies' in and I think it loses credibility and reality.

Originally posted by WatchRider
Sounds like a good book let down only by it's silly title.

Throw the title 'Zombies' in and I think it loses credibility and reality.

BUT, that is the whole idea!!! You're missing the veiled message. It is aimed at people like my wife, or pop-culture addicts. It disguises an important message and education in a little bit of fantasy.

It doesn't go so far as to say who the "Zombies" will actually be, but the preparation works in any case!

It also has some pretty good historical accounts of actual Zombie encounters. There really is a "reanimation" virus! It isn't like the movies, but it does take over control of the motor functions in a corpse for a little while!

Originally posted by getreadyalreadyIt also has some pretty good historical accounts of actual Zombie encounters. There really is a "reanimation" virus! It isn't like the movies, but it does take over control of the motor functions in a corpse for a little while!

Can u site some of this information?

reply to post by The_Smokeing_Gun


It's in the book, along with sources where the author's got their information. I will try to look some of it up again. It has been awhile since I read that book!

www.zombienewswatch.com...

That one is pretty cool. FYI: I do not believe in real zombies! But, all these legends started somewhere.

I found a lot of links saying Max Brooks made all that stuff up, and I don't have the book where I can get to eat easily.

Search the stories that he has in the book. That is what I did, and a couple of them came back to actual news stories! I think one was a body washing up on shore, and trying to crawl. I think one was a BBC story.

Anyhow, I liked the book for entirely different reasons, the only Zombies that have me worried are in Congress!!!!!

[edit on 18-6-2009 by getreadyalready]

I think those tails at the end of thhe book were ment for entertainment more then anything, I am prety skeptical of anything that may suggest that those events ever really happened. I would think it entirely more possible that similar situation had occured and brooks use those actual events and twisted them to his use.

I've got this book and "World War Z - An Oral History Of The Zombie War" While they are great for entertainment value, especially the latter, I cannot say that I would recommend some of the suggestions. For example, a sling (as in a leather slip to throw rocks from) is among the weapons he discusses as possible. While a rock may concuss a human opponent, it would probably not pierce the skull of a zombie opponent AND scramble its brains enough to kill it. Further more, carrying around all those rocks will significantly increase ones burden. Also, he recommends blimps and bicycles as escape vehicles from a zombie-infested area. Clearly, while a bicycle is not reliant on fuel, there is no protection from the grip of the undead and a crash will also damage you more, going on the lack of safety features with bikes. A blimp is just stupid.

Anyway, to conclude, these books have some limited use, but are not to be followed to the letter. A lot of the information is based on combat with a specific opponent, and therefore will be invalid in most situations.

I too recommend [url=http://zombiehunters.org] particularly a thread titled "Mom's Journal of the Zombie Years" an entertaining read and full of useful info.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Max Brooks is a comedy writer. He's Mel Brook's brother, I believe. The book isn't a real survival guide at all. Even zombie survival enthusiasts - a hobby fully entrenched in the realm of fiction - consider it to be crap.

In a serious survival situation, there are better guides that will be more helpful and less full of silliness.

Originally posted by jamieofthedead
Anyway, to conclude, these books have some limited use, but are not to be followed to the letter. A lot of the information is based on combat with a specific opponent, and therefore will be invalid in most situations.

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though this is true, should any survival text be followed to the letter. everything in survival texts is situation depending. No one text is your saviour but the cumalitive knowledge of many texts could help to save you live.


This isn't the first time a zombie outbreak has been used to educate. The Zombie Squad uses this very situation to educate individaulas on disaster prepardiness, encouraging to stock up on essential supplies neccesary to survive for as long as a few days.

Also I think Zombie situations is a great way to get kids prepared for disaster situations. They have seen zombie movies and unless disaster situations are common, can relate to the idea of monsters being a threat, wrather then trying to explain the weather/political/other TSHTF situation.

I'm currently in the middle of reading "World War Z". It is a good read so far. I just couldn't purchase the Survival Guide. It just seemed to me that I would be crossing some type of nerd threshold if I purchased it. Even the woman at the bookstore got a kick out of it and said it was normally in the humor section.