Book: World War Z by Max Brooks

Optioned to be made into a movie by Brad Pitt’s production company if memory serves, this is a the story of how (some of) humanity survived a Romero-esque zombie apocalypse, and begins to reclaim the planet. The narrative is a presented as a series of interviews with people who survived the “Zombie War”, a collection of linked short stories set against the same background. Not exactly great literature, but very entertaining and hard to put down.

Book: Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner-city Ambulance by Tom Reynolds

Taken from the Random Acts of Reality blog, this exactly what it says – excerpts from the the life of a London EMT. If you’ve read the blog, you’ll know what you’re going to get. If you haven’t, then you should, because it’s very good. If I have an criticism of this, it’s only that I don’t think the book contains much if anything that wasn’t on the blog.

Book: I Was Bono’s Doppelganger by Neil McCormick

An extra book, just because I was slack in writing them up. Not actually a U2 biography although they turn up a fair amount, because this is the autobiography of their less successful schoolmate. The book is extremely entertaining in it’s own right, as much because the author is quite willing to admit to his failings, so this does feel like an honest account of what it’s like to have your mates succeed on a staggering scale while your own career goes nowhere. (Well, not nowhere – he’s done alright as a journo, after all, but it’s not what he started out aiming for.)

U2 and Bono come out of it quite well, although there’s enough about their failings (their brief dalliance with a really bizarre Irish Christian cult, for example) to make me think that it’s actually quite accurate about them, and it’s interesting to see that Bono may be rather more self aware than he generally appears in the media.

I got this one free off Dave when he headed off to parts Amerikan, and to be quite honest, as much as I enjoyed it, I’m not sure I’d have felt it was worth it had I paid money for it. Amusing, but *very* light.

Music: At San Quentin / At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash

Well, yeah. Two classic Johnny Cash albums, that are very deservedly classics. Should have bought them a lot sooner. Don’t know what else there is to say – you probably know yourself whether you like Cash or not already. If you don’t, well, get these and make your mind up.

(I’m cheating a little with the music – I actually went two weeks without buying any new music, but then I fell into Fopp by mistake, and bought 4 CDs the other day.)