"The Walking Dead" series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore & Charlie Adlard

I've read the Walking Dead comic book series up to episode fourteen. I'm waiting for my stepdad to order episode fifteen and sixteen (he always orders them in twos). Naturally he should be the one to introduce me to this series.

I don't regret it though. It's pretty awesome. Depressing though.

Seriously guys, don't read this if don't want to feel sad, or grossed out, or just generally upset. It's not a happy story. Basically it's a Zombie Apocalypse, and we follow a small group of survivors as they, well, survive.

And you get to see how they grieve for their lost companions, and how they adapt to the new world, and how they develop. People who start out as pretty moral human beings, begin to get crueler and harsher because it's a kill or be killed world now.

For a story about zombies I've got to say it does a pretty good job on the social commentary.

It can get pretty intense at times, and by that I mean it's actually kind of realistic, as long as you can accept the fact that dead people are walking around eating people. Like there is no guaranty that you're going to survive because you're a kid, or a pregnant woman, or pretty, or even tough. Anyone can die anytime, and that's what makes it so realistic. The zombie killing machines make no concessions just like war killing machines.

One of the main plots of the story, apart from trying to not get eaten by zombies, is the fact that this group of survivors is desperately trying to find a home, a place where they can sleep at night without fear. A hard job I must say. And even when they do find a place that seems safe, you're never sure that they actually are.

It's a good series. It's really depressing, but it's good. The TV show isn't too bad either.

"Sophie's Choice" by William Styron

Well this certainly was a long and hard read. It took me ages to get through it really did, and usually I'm quite a fast reader.

I'm not entirely sure where to start. The narrator, and I suppose the main character of this book, is a young twenty two year old man named Stingo. How to describe Stingo... In three words I would say that Stingo is self obsessed, horny and madly in love with Sophie.

I didn't like Stingo very much, which was fairly annoying seeing as he was the one telling the whole story, the story being the one of the relationship between Sophie and her boyfriend Nathan in the year 1947, just after the war. And they don't exactly have a stable and easygoing relationship that's for certain.

He also tells us of Sophie's life in Auschwitz during the war.

Stingo meets Sophie and Nathan when he takes lodgings in a home in Brooklyn. Nathan is an American Jew and Sophie is a Polish Catholic who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz.

Throughout the entire book you follow Stingo slowly unravelling the secrets of Sophie's past. At first it seems like there is not much to discover, she only says that she survived. But more Stingo gets to know Sophie, and the closer he gets to her the more he, and through him we, realise just how much she went through, and what terrible thinks she's rather no one ever knew. You have to go through all of her lies and half truths before you finally get to the truth.

All that plus the actual present relationship of Nathan and Sophie as I said before. Nathan is quite deranged and Sophie is completely devoted and infatuated with him. So you can see how that might not exactly be a healthy relationship.

I don't know. It's a good book, the story is sad but well written. My only actual problem is that I really disliked Stingo. Other than that I have no real complaints.

"Making Money" by Terry Pratchett

The Discworld series is one of my all time most favourite book series, and it has been for a while. I've been reading Terry Pratchett books since I was nine years old, and they just keep getting better and better every time I reread them.

I'm not sure how many times I've read "Making Money". I've read it more than once that's for sure. It's one of my favourite Discworld novels.

"Making Money" is the sequel to "Going Postal" (also brilliant by the way), but you don't need to have read the first book to understand or enjoy it.

The main characters name is Moist Von Lipwig (not joking, that's his actual name), and he is a criminal turned respectable gentleman. In "Making Money" he is given the job if restoring the city's bank to it's former glory, so that the city's leader, that is to say tyrant, can borrow some money to modernise the city.

Thus begins a hilarious chain of events.

There's also a few very well developed side plots, that are eventually very important for the development of the main plot.

Really though it is a wonderful story. The plot is great, the humour is fantastic, and the pacing is spot on. Terry Pratchett is one of my very favourite actors and so far he has completely failed to disappoint me, for which I am eternally grateful.

So please read this. Please do. It's wonderful it really is.