As far as we know the world is not coming to an end anytime soon. But if it were, the best course of action might be to supply your bunker with plenty of food and water, and plenty of good books to read. In the event of the apocalypse these books will do more than entertain — they could provide to roadmap for survival.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson: Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth…but he is not alone; he’s surrounded by vampires. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.
Blindness by Jose Saramago: A city is hit by an epidemic of “white blindness” whose victims are confined to a vacant mental hospital, while a single eyewitness to the nightmare guides seven oddly assorted strangers through the barren urban landscape
Zone One by Colson Whitehead: In a post-apocalyptic world decimated by zombies, survivor efforts to rebuild are focused on Manhattan, where civilian team member Mark Spitz works to eliminate remaining infected stragglers and remembers his horrifying experiences at the height of the zombie plague.
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: This satirical commentary on on the future and Earth’s ultimate fate this classic twentieth century work is at once fatalistic and hilarious — the apocalypse deserves a little brevity.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.
The Stand by Stephen King: A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors in a desert world who move toward the ultimate confrontation of good and evil, handled masterfully by perhaps the best-equipped writer for the subject.
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells: On October 30, 1938, Wells terrified American radio listeners by describing a martian invasion of Earth in a broadcast that became legendary. The broadcast came from his novel of interplanetary conflict in anticipation of war in Europe, and in it he predicted the technological savagery of twentieth century warfare.
If you had to bunker down for the end of days, what books would you pack for the bombshelter to bring along to the apocalypse?
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