Zombies and Dimes

Greetings, fellow readers! This week has been a somewhat difficult one for me personally--I have come down with some horrible sore throat disease of death--but wonderful in terms of my Shelf Life. Let me explain . . .

Today I returned to the Friends of the Library sale for their ten cent day, an event which I had the pleasure of experiencing for the first time with my friend Tia, a fellow student and Quidditch player here at UF. Between the two of us, we ended up buying 48 books! (In case you're reading this, Mom, don't worry--they're small, and I promise to donate more of mine to the Book Crossing bag so I don't hog all the space.) The selection today was much worse than it was on Saturday; it was rather like picking through the leftovers of a town that had already been plundered and pillaged. I ended up with some ridiculous fantasy paperbacks with titles like The Prince of Whales and I Heard the Owl Call My Name to match my Silly Sci-Fi Stack--I'm sensing a mini-collection here--and a few classic lit paperbacks that hadn't been snatched up by students looking for cheap textbooks. Tia also found me a pocket-sized volume called A Little Coffee Cookbook, which promises to teach me how to make such treats as coffee and ginger souffle and coffee banana bread. This could be lethal . . .

By this time, my throat had reached the Point of Unendurable Agony, so I crawled into bed for a few hours' sleep before . . .

Going to hear Max Brooks, author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, speak at the student union!

I went with my boyfriend, Jacob, and friends Haley and Lexi. We're all big fans of the books, and Haley and I both play Humans vs. Zombies on campus, which is more like glorified tag than surviving the apocalypse, but still. Mr. Brooks gave a talk and then answered questions from the audience. I asked him what his zombie melee weapon of choice is, and he said a crowbar. He went on to explain that weapon choice is also a question of environment: he's from Los Angeles, and therefore has crowbars in case of earthquakes, as well as zombie outbreaks, though he said since I'm from Jacksonville, I might prefer a machete. He signed my copies of his books and was gracious enough to pose for a picture, which I will post as soon as I get it uploaded.

Now that my bookish adventures are complete, I'm off to bed with some hot tea and a new novel. If I'm going to be sick, I'm at least going to be well-read as I cough to death!

Until next time,

Anna