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READ ENTIRE OP BEFORE POSTING; IF YOU BREAK THE RULES, I WILL BREAK YOUR ARMS!
Hopefully all those interested saw the blog where I started this, but if not you still have a few days before we will be finished with the first part, so no worries. (I hope)
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=106994
^^ Read this if you haven't already, says what this is all about.
FULL BOOK DISCUSSION NOW OPEN
FULL BOOK DISCUSSION NOW OPEN
SCHEDULE:
Part 1:
Chapters 1 & 2: Introduction & Warnings
Pages 1-44 (44 pages total)
Read 20th-21st, discussion on the 21st & 22nd.
Part 2:
Chapters 3 & 4: Blame & The Great Panic
Pages 45-104 (59 pages total)
Read 22nd-23rd, discussion on the 23rd & 24th.
Part 3:
Chapters 5 & 6: Turning the Tide & Home Front USA
Pages 105-186 (81 pages total)
Read 24th-27th, discussion on the 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th.
Part 4:
Chapter 7: Around the World, And Above
Pages 187-269 (82 pages total)
Read 28th-29th, discussion on the 29th & 30th.
Part 5:
Chapters 8 & 9: Total War & Good-byes
Pages 270-342 (72 pages total)
Read 30th-31st, discussion 31st till whenever.
We will be going by TL time (korean time), so I am technically posting this thread 8 hours early, but w/e.
RULES
1. Do not discuss anything beyond the parts in blue text at the top of the OP.
2. When you want to discuss something specific, use page numbers or something to tell us where to look.
3. DO NOT SPOIL OH MY GOD I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU SPOIL!
4. Discussion is open (I might post questions to seed discussion if it is going slow, feel free to do the same), only rule is don't talk about stuff the group hasn't read yet.
5. Seriously, don't spoil.
I will bump this every time we have a new section to read or discuss, and the red and blue text at the top of the OP will always be updated to the current sections being read/discussed, so you won't have to hunt through the thread if you fall behind to see where you should catch up to.
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DISCUSSION NOW OPEN FOR INTRODUCTIONS & WARNINGS
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oh shit, forgot to DL this book. Will do now, import to ipod and read via road trip for xmas.
edit- no luck on demonoid
edit2- found pdf & mp3 audio versions on btjunkie
also from the blog
+ Show Spoiler +On December 19 2009 17:48 meeple wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2009 17:01 Steelflight-Rx wrote:
I just started reading this! you can get it for free googling "world war z free ebook" Sweet tip thanks!
PS- It's only 338 pages, BOOK IT!
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Wow, I just DL'd it and read intro + warnings, and for me, it's a book i just can't close. How can i keep myself from not reading the rest of the book before the 22nd?
The excruciatin detail + footnotes really make this immersive. The factual details such as israeli tanks having back doors, and the emotional aspect (human aspect that max brooks includes) really makes this a book filled with realism + zombies. Zombie realism.
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If you finish early/read ahead, you can discuss whatever you want, just put it in spoiler tags with clear listings of what part is inside each spoiler.
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I'll get started on this tomorrow! Totally forgot about it until now =]
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This thread is not for recommendations, use the other thread for that, this thread is for wwz discussion only.
Edit: Not to sound like a dick, just that I don't want this thread derailed by the next book that everyone thinks we should read.
(Also, just fyi, if you don't participate in the discussion of this book, your suggestion for the next book will be ignored for obvious reasons.)
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On December 19 2009 17:48 meeple wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2009 17:01 Steelflight-Rx wrote:
I just started reading this! you can get it for free googling "world war z free ebook" Sweet tip thanks!
I've heard the whole book in audio format and i'm pretty sure the link from google is just the audio book in written form. It's word for word for the first 3 chapters anyway, with nothing else that wasn't in the audio.
The full book i'm told is longer than the audio book version. They cut out quite a bit from what my work friend has told me.
So if you google it to read it, you'll probably not be getting the whole book. You'll be getting a transcription of the much shorter audio book.
Just a warning. If you're fine with that, go for it. I haven't read the book, but the audio book is really good, so if you're never planning on actually buying a copy, go for it. If you are planning on buying the book, you might get a better experience just waiting till then to read it.
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i accidentally read the whole book lol : ( was too good to stop, i don't remember where the first part ends, can we get a summary going? : ]
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On December 21 2009 18:11 jodogohoo wrote:
i accidentally read the whole book lol : ( was too good to stop, i don't remember where the first part ends, can we get a summary going? : ]
Yeh I bought the book with the intention of doing the book club, but I ended up finishing it in like 3 days  . I then had a couple of days in a row where I woke up thinking that zombies were real, which was a scary yet awesome experience in itself. You know a book has effected you when you start critically evaluating your house's defensibility against zombies.
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Just for those of you following the schedule, we should now be reading Blame & The Great Panic, and we will open discussion for those parts tomorrow.
And to jodogohoo and RisingTide as soon as I finish the first 2 chapters (yeah, I know, I'm the guy running it, but shit came up, I'll be caught up tonight) I will post a little synopsis so you guys know what happened and therefore what you can discuss if you want.
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On December 21 2009 20:30 RisingTide wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2009 18:11 jodogohoo wrote:
i accidentally read the whole book lol : ( was too good to stop, i don't remember where the first part ends, can we get a summary going? : ] You know a book has effected you when you start critically evaluating your house's defensibility against zombies.
Stephen King's 'Cell' actually did that to me 
hopefully this one does too.
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Thanks Lemonwalrus.
Yeah RisingTide, I ended up looking at what i could use to fend off zombies, but all i had was a guitar hero controller.
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I'd like to start by saying that I've read this book a couple of times now, and I have also listened to the audiobook. The audiobook is abridged. Accounts had to be cut, and I think that the choices made on the chopping block were good. Some of my favorite parts were eliminated though, and I would recommend reading the full version because of that. Regardless, the audiobook is a work of brilliance, with very top notch voice acting from the likes of Mark Hamill, Henry Rollins, and Alan Alda.
I think that these first few accounts are why the book is so compelling and why most people I know read it in one go. Obviously it lays the groundwork for how the infection started and spread. It makes you think about how our level of globalization would facilitate the rapid spread of a zombie apocalypse, from human trafficking to organ donations. In approaching the idea of zombie holocaust in such a deliberate and well-considered manner, Brooks also indicates to the reader that his account will be comprehensive, considering many facets of modern life and how they will affect, and be changed by, the events that are to follow.
The greatest thing about the opening interviews is that they foreshadow a great deal. These are all post-war accounts, told from changed or defended locations, and with the hindsight that a survivor would possess. I love how earnest the characters are, revealing their faults at the time of the outbreak from the perspective of several hard years afterward. This cements the idea that it is an historical account, which is a great asset to the story because it gives it (admittedly transparent) credibility. It also keeps you turning the pages furiously, because that's just what well-executed foreshadowing does.
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I definitely agree man, the realism in this book is top notch.
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DISCUSSION OPEN FOR BLAME & THE GREAT PANIC
and little writeups for fist 2 chapters incoming just a little more tiiiiiiiiiiiiime
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On December 21 2009 14:43 HyKe wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2009 17:48 meeple wrote:On December 19 2009 17:01 Steelflight-Rx wrote:
I just started reading this! you can get it for free googling "world war z free ebook" Sweet tip thanks! I've heard the whole book in audio format and i'm pretty sure the link from google is just the audio book in written form. It's word for word for the first 3 chapters anyway, with nothing else that wasn't in the audio. The full book i'm told is longer than the audio book version. They cut out quite a bit from what my work friend has told me. So if you google it to read it, you'll probably not be getting the whole book. You'll be getting a transcription of the much shorter audio book. Just a warning. If you're fine with that, go for it. I haven't read the book, but the audio book is really good, so if you're never planning on actually buying a copy, go for it. If you are planning on buying the book, you might get a better experience just waiting till then to read it.
I DLed the audio book and the PDF book and converted it a few times (text/jpg to consumable chunks) to fit into ipod notes so I could read along with the audio. The conversion seems to leave out some punctuation and/or the audio script is altered from the text. Some words are changed or rearranged, and It kind of makes it harder to follow along.
The audio book reads like some kind of radio play which is cool, but it goes too slow. I keep finding myself a half a page ahead of the audio.
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btw, when does the first 44 pages/chapter 2 end? This coversion didn't make actual page numbers and I don't know if the audio book tells me.
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Reading while listening to the same txt ? Its ridicilously slow and bad if u ever want to read faster. More over, usually makes u understand less than those who are used to read faster or speed read.
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I downloaded the PDF file.. some of the words are misspelled (not sure if it's meant this way? I'm only on page 16) and these recollections of encounters/transporting are a bit hard to keep up on (and differentiating where the foot notes are, where the footnote is referring to in the text since there's no indication while reading until you REACH the footnote, in which you have to go back through that page to look for it). Should I wait to buy the book? =/ it's REALLY addicting but I hope the PDF file is exactly the same as the real book, just not separated by pages.
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yea the PDF definitely has a lot of errors.
Also I'm listening and reading through the smuggler interview right now, and it's [audio version] skipping lots of questions. And then it's now skipped over like 3-4 countries descriptions.
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Those of you following the schedule about now you should be starting the third part, for which we have 4 days.
As for the pdf errors, this really sucks, but idk what to do about it. Apparently the book was released in a few different versions that are way off.
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No one is even discussing the book sections. I'm guessing everyone just gonna talk about it after it's done?
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OH shit I never did the little writeups that I promised.
Chapter 1: Introduction.
Just sets up the story about how my life got flipped turned...about how the war has been over for 10 years and what follows is basically interviews with people that survived linked together with data when it needs to be. The narrator is the person conducting the interviews.
Chapter 2: Warnings.
A Collection of interviews/personal statements from a host of characters about the beginnings of the outbreak.
Kwang Jingshu: A Chinese doctor that was called in for one of the first infections, before any civilians (him included) knew what it was. We learn that when he called his friend, a government doctor of some kind, his friend seemed to know something about the infection already, and then the government came and gathered up all the people in the village.
Nury Telavaldi: A smuggler of sorts that, when the outbreaks started, found work smuggling people in and out of tibet and across borders. Shows us how people in the early stages tried to deal with the problem and how the underworld smugglers may have facilitated the spread by moving people across borders that were supposed to be closed.
Stanley MacDonald: A Canadian soldier that was working in Kyrgystan when the outbreak reached there. He was the first person to encounter an infected in the area without dying because of it.
Fernando Oliveira: A South-American doctor that performed a transplant with an infected heart (was unknown to him at the time) and dealt with the transplant patient after he zombified and killed another doctor.
Jacob Nyathi: A guy that was in South Africa when the outbreak there started, was able to escape after killing a zombie, was shot by police and taken to a hospital where he overheard discussions between doctors where the doctors seemed to think the infection was a form of rabies.
Jurgen Warmbrunn: An Israeli intelligence agent of some sort that was one of the first to piece together what was going on from a myriad of UN reports and other documents. He and another man developed a plan to stop infection, the only country that followed the plan was Israel (at least as far as we know at the end of the chapter) and unfortunately that seems to have caused the start of a civil war in Israel.
Saladine Kader: A college professor who, at the time of the outbreak, was a teen in Palestine. His father moved them to Israel (against Saladine's will) when the infection started. Everyone suspected that it was an underhanded move by Israel in their never ending war, and not a legit protection against the outbreak. The chapter closes on the start of the civil war.
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On December 24 2009 08:33 CharlieMurphy wrote:
No one is even discussing the book sections. I'm guessing everyone just gonna talk about it after it's done?
I was assuming that was what would happen, but wanted the thread to be open the entire time incase people wanted to discuss it during and also just to help prod people into staying caught up.
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Also anybody else pick up on the anti-American sentiment in the 2nd chapter? I mean, it was quite subtle, so you might not have noticed. /sarcasm
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On December 24 2009 08:59 Lemonwalrus wrote:
Also anybody else pick up on the anti-American sentiment in the 2nd chapter? I mean, it was quite subtle, so you might not have noticed. /sarcasm
definitely. i usually have a hard time recalling names and specifics about these short-handed interviews of multiple people.. but I DO remember reading a comment made by one of the people being interviewed that implied a bad example and saying something along the lines "we aren't like YOUR country" (YOUR country meaning the USA).
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So...I read farther than the timeline and think I should ninja-edit my post. I thought what I had posted was within the first four chapters but I may be wrong after what QuoC said.
+ Show Spoiler [potential spoiler] +I feel so cliche saying this but I'm really enjoying the social/political commentary that goes on throughout the book. My favorite being the Israelis and their instinct for survival after 2000 years of constant attack and goes somewhat like: "it's the job of the 10th agent to disagree if the first 9 all come to the same conclusion." Then there's the always looking for something deeper than the obvious motif. And the Americans getting tricked by the Chinese so they don't find out what the government is actually doing? So awesome because it can realistically happen.
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On December 25 2009 10:54 Dknight wrote:
I feel so cliche saying this but I'm really enjoying the social/political commentary that goes on throughout the book. My favorite being the Israelis and their instinct for survival after 2000 years of constant attack and goes somewhat like: "it's the job of the 10th agent to disagree if the first 9 all come to the same conclusion." Then there's the always looking for something deeper than the obvious motif. And the Americans getting tricked by the Chinese so they don't find out what the government is actually doing? So awesome because it can realistically happen.
you've exposed to me orgasmic matter in which I pre-ejaculated (meaning reading your post before reading further) and could not hold the temptation
can't wait for this shit. sounds very complex and interesting
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Ugh. I hope it was because you're not caught up and not me by accidentally revealing what laid in the next two chapters. If it's the latter, I'm sorry!! =[
Also, for those who don't have the actual book. Just use your local library! That's what it's there for.
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No dk what you posted was fair game, that was chapter 3 iirc.
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just bought the book today will probably catch up by tomorrow or read it all haha
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I'm halfway through it and I'm quite bored. Yeah sure every interview is really well made, the social/political/wartime context is really well depicted, there was a lot of sweat put into this book I won't deny it. But this mountain of information just doesn't interest me. It's like watching a good documentary but on a subject I really don't care about.
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DISCUSSION NOW OPEN FOR TURNING THE TIDE & HOMEFRONT USA
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Yeah sorry christmas kicked my ass as far as having time for things. (also I lost my trophy )
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God damn, somehow managed to miss that PM and forgot all about this
Gonna go get that book and read to page 200 tonight.
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DISCUSSION NOW OPEN FOR AROUND THE WORLD, AND ABOVE
Also, I forgot whether we were following the tl calendar or my home time, so I think we lost a day somewhere, anyways, we will open full book discussion 48 hours from this post.
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Braavos36375 Posts
i finished this book in two days, i thought it was really great (thanks for the recommendation! i wouldve never known about it if not for this thread)
i think one of the biggest strengths was the authors creative use of language, i thought the US army perspectives calling them Zack and Gs were really cool. most zombie stories need this sort of grounding, because calling them zombies often takes you out of the reality of it. after a few dozen pages i quickly and easily forgot that it was a story with supernatural elements, because so many details and emotions from the characters were so realistic and grounded.
my favorite povs so far were the american ones, mainly the DesStRes and army grunt guys.
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Yeah just so everybody knows full book discussion is now open.
Also I agree with your assessments about the language making the book more believable. It reminds me a lot about how my favorite sci-fi authors always have weird slang that they introduce in order to pull you out of your world and into theirs.
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Did you guys know they're making this into a movie? I have really high hopes for it as long as they don't screw it up. I'm not sure how the American audience is going to take it with all the politicial and cultural commentary.
If they dumb it down, a whole lot would be lost. Just see Red Cliff how it was cut for Hollywood. IMO, it would have to be at least 4 hours to get all of it. Battle of Yonkers and the bridge scene in India must be pretty damn epic.
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after finishing this book for a few days i started preparing for a zombie attack -_-.
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No way a movie could ever compare to the book. It's just way too deep, too many stories.
I'd rather have a miniseries or tv show.
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I'm really interested in reading his other book now. I actually watched 'Zombiemania' a few days ago about the evolution of zombies and he was in it. Funny how WWZ almost made his first book a national best seller.
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I liked the part when the blind guy tackled the guy from before. When it mentioned the sword i actually looked back to see if they were the same person.
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I read this book in 2 days practically on the plane to madrid, and god it's still so good. Just how plausible everything the author lays out is almost scary. From the delayed acceptance of the outbreak to the faux-vaccine.
If it eventually does get turned into a movie I hope the format doesn't get brutalized.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://heystupid.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/book-it.jpg)
