The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
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The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

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3.9 of 5 stars 3.90  ·  rating details  ·  18,517 ratings  ·  1,677 reviews
The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to s...more
Audio CD, 9 pages
Published September 12th 2006 by RH Audio (first published January 1st 2003)
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Antisocialite
My love for this book is a result of my lack of social skills. Much as I might try to generate conversation with strangers (and, occasionally, among friends) I usually just end up rambling awkwardly until uneasy silence takes over. So, at some point, I started employing zombies. As conversation topics, not servants. Though that would be cool.

"What would we do if we were attacked by zombies right now?" is an excellent way to get to know someone. Their willingness to particip...more
Eric
Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: The post-apocalyptically curious, horror buffs, those just being introduced to zombies
"Yes Brooks, but what about?" is what I often found myself asking while perusing the Zombie Survival Guide. It's clear it is meant to be humorous. I first went looking for it in non-fiction, and was disappointed to find it in the Humor section. I spared the Barnes and Noble employee a lecture on the dangers of being woefully unprepared for the coming Zombiepocalypse. Brooks went to some trouble to make it appear as if he put plenty of thought and research into this, and that helps make...more
HappyHippo
HappyHippo rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Zombie Nuts and Leli a.k.a Layli :-p
Recommended to HappyHippo by: Jendral Pantouw
Buku ini ternyata secara tak terduga sukses menyalip ditikungan si Becky yang lagi belanja dan petualangan William of Baskerville di sebuah biara Benediktian. Oke, ada yang udah nonton film2nya Leslie Nielsen? itu tuh, aki2 ubanan yang maen di film parodi Dracula, trilogi Naked Gun, Airplane, Scary Movie dll. Gayanya khas banget, dia ngelawak dengan gaya yang serius, seakan-akan dia tidak sadar kalo lagi ngelawak dan gak sadar kalo penonton tertawa terbahak-bahak. Nah seperti itulah Max Brooks m...more
Jon
Max Brooks is a crazy man.

On the surface, this book functions as humor. What to do when zombies take over, that's fun, right?

What becomes obvious once you start reading it is that Brooks spent a lot of time thinking very seriously about this. And that's funny too. Part of what makes this book great is how humorless it is, even though you will find it in the humor section at the book store.

The more you read, the more you realize that Brooks has a very specific...more
Evan
Evan rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: zombie nerds
I find this book to be woefully under-researched as a survival guide, and I fear that it will only lead to more deaths at the hands of the zombie menace. Particularly irksome to me was the weapons section in which he claims that single handed swords lack the power to break through skulls and that katanas should be the first sword of choice because they are light; both of these claims blatantly disregard the benefits of Western weaponry. He also claims that halberds are a waste of time and that...more
Gloria Mundi
The End of The World. Predicted, feared and keenly awaited by certain elements throughout human history. But the Big Bad that will swiftly dispatch us all to hell in a handbasket remains hotly debated. Nuclear war, comets and asteroids, the sun going nova, God smiting us, the large hard-on collider creating a black whole etc. etc. are all potential causes. So why not zombies. You know it makes sense.

So, if you want to survive the rising of the eeeeevil dead, you need to follow the fo...more
Josh
Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: You, if you want to live
If you’ve ever fantasized about being the last person on Earth, barricaded in some remote makeshift fortress against an unnamable evil that even now encroaches your perimeter … well, maybe you’re the kind of person that should keep this book on their nightstand.

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (yes, son of Mel Brooks and Ann Bancroft) is strangely informative and darkly satirical. Brooks writes with his tongue planted so firmly in his check that he risks a nasty bruise. I he...more
Spencer
Spencer rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Zombie zombies. Fans of the Boy Scout Manual.
It's a funny coincidence that I'm probably going to get killed by an angry, mindless mob for saying this, but allow me to be the only one with the guts to say that The Zombie Survival Guide is hugely overrated. As others have suggested, the angle is supposed to be that this is a fact-based, real-world take on what to do when the dead finally rise, but Brooks breaks out the "science still can't explain" card way too often for his premise to really work. Which is problematic because whil...more
Anzu ZombieHazard
*updated 01 Nov 2011*

raaar GGRRR UURRRG roooorrr RAAAAAAAR uurrg OOOOOR oooor ggrrrr RAAAAR GGRRR oor UUUGGG uugg aahhhhh!!!

Yes! I’m mastering the zombie language! If you don’t know what that means you’re in deep sh*t. You might want to get some books and start learning a few things..

Every person on the planet should own this book; you can never know when the next attack is going to be.

To do list:
• buy a machete
• buy an M1 Carbine
...more
Trin
There seems to be some disagreement as to whether this is a humor or a horror book. It was marketed as the former, but I actually think it’s more effective as the latter. If it’s a humor book, it’s strictly one-note—survival guides expect you to be ridiculously over-prepared, haha! As a horror book—even keeping in mind its goofier moments—it really gets under your skin, makes you reassess your surroundings and your safety in ways, I think, few monster stories do.

It’s also interesting...more
Eliza
Eliza rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: those unprepared for the zombie menace.
I started this book because I read World War Z and enjoyed it, for some value of enjoyed which also includes being seriously freaked out. This book further cemented my freaked-outedness. I now recognise that my home is inadequate protection against the zombie menace, that not only do I not have any sort of weapon handy which could decapitate without putting me in harm's way but even if I did I would have no skills to use it, and that I am not fully prepared for even a level-1 situation were it t...more
icebox
icebox added it  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: nobody
Shelves: lost-interest
Okay, so I'll be honest. I started reading this book. I got about 10 pages in. Most people would say, "Hey, thats not far enough to know if this book is good or not" but I disagree. In the first 10 pages, not only was I able to discover how completely contradicting this book was, but I was also able to realize how familiar this story was. In my opinion, it seems as though Max Brooks compaired the Zombie virus to the AIDS virus. The only difference being the name of the virus. I am in n...more
Belinda
I am woefully underprepared for the zombie apocalypse. If you have a suitable fortress and/or roving group that I can join, please let me know. I can dress out game and make soap. You know you'll be wanting food and soap, right? Let's talk.
Rae  Walker
Rae Walker rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Survival Nerds (and they do exist).
The Zombie Survival Guide is entirely based on the premise of 'Zombie attacks, both massive and individual, are highly plausable. Here is how you survive.'

This is a wonderful premise. It is a wonderful book. Because of this book, I feel that I have a better chance of surviving a zombie attack if/when it does occur.

If you want to be in my roving troupe of refugees then there will be some required reading and this book will be on the list. Also, don't think you can read thi...more
GUS BUS!
GUS BUS! rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Those that need protection from the undead
This is a great book to have when you are suddenly overrun by zombies. It details every supplie and every weapon you will need to survive. It has where you should go and other survival tips if you ever come across and undead army.
Gareth
Gareth rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: anybody who's interested from surviving a zombie attack
This was a funny book, the author really spent too much time thinking about how to survive a zombie outbreak. It's fun to read if you're interested in that kind of thing.
Robert
Possibly the most important book I've ever read. Now, when the zombie apocalypse comes, I know what steps to take to survive. Do you?
Radha
I had multiple zombie dreams while reading this book. I had one dream where my cat turned into a zombie and then there were these albino zombie ferrets that walked on their hind legs and there were zombie rats that I had to kill by smashing their head with a hammer and then one of the people I was with stuck a skewer through one of the heads of a zombie rat and then blood splattered into my mouth when they pulled it out and I was about to spit the blood out of my mouth when I think I woke mysel...more
Cooperglocker
Cooperglocker rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Anybody who doesn't shamble, moan, groan, or seek brains.
Recommended to Cooperglocker by: My fiancee
Hilarious, yet strangely believable.

I'm not exactly going to run out and get plate armor and swords, but it sounds fun!
Zerf
Le "Guide de survie en territoire zombie" de Max Brooks est un livre sur lequel j'avais pas mal d'attentes...
On m'en avait dit que du bien, ça traite d'un sujet qui m'intéresse et ça semblait décalé.. (Notamment avec l'annotation sur la quatrième de couverture : "Ce livre peut vous sauver la vie".)

Ce livre qui au premier abord semble donc humoristique, ne l'est en fait pas du tout. Certains diront que le côté humoristique de ce livre se retrouve dans le séri...more
Mike (the Paladin)
Having learned how to survive a horror movie (see my review of that book for further details) I set out to arm myself against other supernatural, unnatural, undead, and other threats.

This will be an invaluable resource in the case of Zombie infestation and plague (they seem to be spreading from what I can tell). The whole "zombie plague" thing seems to have been unheard of before video games it seems to me. Now what with "World-War Z", Resident Evil....The Evil de...more
Bettie
We've been having fun with this insomuch as zombies, apparently, don't jump. So future stuga visitors will be asked the question "do you, erm, play netball at all". If there is a failure to answer in the affirmative we will, as a family body, exit rather promptly.

It's rather fun to have 'Thriller' as low background noise during the Voodoo Zombie chapter. One good piece of advice is this ... heads that have been severed from their bodies can still bite one to death so get yo...more
Megan
I know this book is listed as humor, but I am not completely convinced that zombies couldn't happen...it seems logical for some reason, that some disease could reanimate the dead. It is one of the few things in the horror genre that actually really scares me. I have had not a few nightmares about this and have a great fondness for Shaun of the Dead.
This book basically lays it out like it is a possibility. He is very very thorough--so much so that I wondered if maybe he was some nut wh...more
Philip
*edit* I was just looking over the New York Times Bestseller List and found that this book is in the top five for paperback nonfiction. Well, I guess I'm really glad I read it after all.



This book was complete. While it's quick to point out that I'm still not an expert at disposing the undead, I'm well (and I mean WELL) on my way.

This is the kind of book that's good to have out on a coffee table as a conversation starter. I don't recommend reading it the wh...more
Calvinw10201
An excellent book with tons of useful information. I've been preparing myself for the worst. Brooks uses a dark sense of comedy as well as historic facts to illustrate concepts described in his book. Also, the scarce placement of pictures conveys the concepts described as well as gives the reader something to laugh at. A must read for all members of Z.A.R.T. (zombie apocalypse response teams)
Page 1-159
Sarah
Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Anyone who wants to survive the coming zombie apocalypse
Something called "The Zombie Survival Guide" could easily be written as a joke, but Max Brooks is dead serious (un-dead serious, maybe? HA I amuse myself so easily). Covering everything from the best zombie-fighting weapons to trouble spots to avoid to the best hideouts, this is probably the most comprehensive guide ever written about zombie-fighting. It's written like a reference guide, but it's actually a great read, and I bet you'll find something that will stick in your mind and sa...more
Josh Cummins
So far this book has been amazing, it has really opened my eyes to the posibility of zombies excisting. Also it has an amazing amount of convincing facts of which really helped me in my book i am currently writing which is also zombie based. I can't wait until another one of my friends reads this, it will be awesome to talk about. My favorite part so far has been about the weapons to use in a zombie invasion. I highly recomend this book for anyone interested in science fiction books or conspirac...more
Jesus
Compré este libro en plena locura de la gripe A... por si acaso, uno nunca sabe lo que los Gobiernos nos ocultan. Y este caso parecía encajar con un misterioso brote de 'algo'. Al final, quedó en nada, tan sólo la alarma social creada por los Gobiernos alimentada y exacerbada por unos medios de comunicación histéricos. ¿Y si se hubiera tratado de un brote zombi real? ¿Y si nos mentían diciendo que era gripe A para que no cundiera un pánico aún mayor al tratarse de muertos andantes? Yo no habría ...more
Thermalsatsuma
There's a game that we play in this house, and I imagine that most of you will have played something similar, where we talk about our plans for a zombie apocalypse. We discuss our options for safe hideouts, preferred weaponry, sources of food and water and long term escape plans. For the record, I would go for the local Costcutter supermarket (solid, defensible structure, well supplied), weapons of choice would be my Paul Chen katana (good for decapitation) and sais (close combat, last resort) a...more
Dean
The Zombie Survival Guide is wonderfull. After having to read badly written Manuals in the Military, I was laughing out loud at some of the stuff in this book..not because the book is funny but because it's a lot like some of the Training Manuals the Military Puts out.
Max Brooks (Son of Mel) has written an excellent book and it shows that it's well thought out.
If you have not read this,give it a go..it would make great gifts for christmas even to non readers.
A good accompanymen...more
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The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From The Living Dead (Paperback)
The Zombie Survival Guide
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead (Paperback)
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead (ebook)
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From The Living Dead (Kindle Edition)

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Brooks is the son of director Mel Brooks and the late actress Anne Bancroft. He is a 1994 graduate of Pitzer College. His wife, Michelle, is a screenwriter, and the couple have a son, Henry.

Max Brooks lives in New York City but is prepared to move to a more remote and defensible location at a moment's notice.
More about Max Brooks...
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds (G. I. Joe (Graphic Novels)) The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attack; Downtown LA The Zombie Survival Guide Journal

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