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laughingsquid:

Required Summer Reading

About halfway through my last summer vacation (as a student, anyway).

(Source: incidentalcomics, via britlikeslimes)

reverendjack asked: Who are a few of your favorite authors? seems like a very 'tumblrbot-esque' question, but i was just wondering.

That’s a hard question, as I generally just grab whatever catches my eye at the library (and when I had money, at the bookstore). But I’m a big ALCO! fan so I’ll try to answer.
Weirdly enough, I rarely seek out multiple works by the same writer. It seems a bit easier to think in terms of writers who have made a significant impact on me in one way or another: Kerouac, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Scott Westerfeld, Ned Vizzini, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, David Levithan, Arthur Nersesian…there’s probably more but I am terrible at remembering names. 

EDIT: OMG how did I forget Langston Hughes?  

My friend is having trouble with her Wuthering Heights paper

intotheimpossibledream:

I am extremely tempted to call her with the intent of singing inspirational songs to her. Why are people friends with me? 

Because you’re awesome.

Her paper just needs to be a rant about how only people so awful could love one another. 
It’s a testament to love because it shows there’s someone for everyone no matter how batshit insane you may be.

At least, that’s probably what I’d write, haha. 

Women of color reading project →

pengpenguins:

A list of radical literature by/about WOC.

Reading list just got so much longer.

(via racebending)

Review: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies

I literally just finished Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk.

In the forward of the book, Max Brooks notes that “…if you are someone who has never given the living dead much thought…this is your book.” I am not that person. I am very much a zombie fan, though not to the level where I have actually done any preparation in case of zombie outbreak. I have not done much more than think, “Lord, I am screwed if this ever happens.” Anyway, I figured that there was potential to learn a lot from someone who helped create the Zombie Research Society. So I read the book.

It was an interesting read, especially in the Zombie Biology section. I also enjoyed the clarification on what does and does not qualify as a zombie. (Dear Mogk, picking at nits here but: I’m aware that popular culture refers to the monster of Shelley’s creation as “Frankenstein” but you must know that while the scientist who creates the monster is named Frankenstein, the monster himself is not called Frankenstein. Pet peeve.) I also enjoyed the guide to how zombies have evolved in the way they are depicted and the clarification that Voodoo zombies are not the flesh-eaters of modern fiction. There was a lot of good information that would help educate the part of the public that does not know very much about zombies.
However, much of it was an insistent, eventually grating warning of the impending doom zombies shall bring to humanity. The entire premise of the book can be summed up in Mogk’s own words: “…once the dead rise, the days of study and conjecture are over…Because what you don’t know can eat you.”

This book reminded me of how horribly unprepared I am for any type of disaster that may strike, but didn’t make a “doomsday prepper” out of me. If anything, Mogk just reinforced my belief that if I’m at risk of dying at any moment, I may as well enjoy what time I have left. I’m no survivalist, just a perpetually lovesick, socially awkward young adult who spends far too much time in front of a computer screen.

Honestly, by the end of the book, Mogk’s foreboding tone wore on me. I get it, zombies will destroy us all if we aren’t prepared. Research, preparation and vigilance are our only hope. The tone is meant to turn the apathetic but curious reader into one interested in learning more about zombies. After finishing this book, I kind of want a break from zombie-related anything for a while. 

I find myself appreciating the peace of my surroundings, despite Mogk’s warnings that someday I may find myself losing life and limb to a relentless, flesh-craving neighbor.