I figured it was about time for me to write about this book, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. It’s gotten a lot of press and ended up on many lists of the best books of 2006. I bought it from Amazon and read it in a single evening. So what did I think?
Let me start with WHY I bought it. I’m a big fan of “The Stand,” by Stephen King. I have read the full, unabridged version several times. In fact, I go back and re-read it about once every three years or so. I really, really love that book. I’d say I’m a fan of the “end of the world scenario” book in general. Naturally a person with my reading/buying habits got The Road as a recommendation on Amazon. Since it was so highly regarded by so many people, I went ahead and ordered it - very unusual for me, since I hate to buy books in hardback, usually preferring to wait for the softcover. But this time I made an exception. What really got me was Amazon putting it on their list of the top 50 books of 2006. So I ordered it, got it, and then sat down to read it one evening.
Wow.
It’s rare that I read an entire book in one sitting, especially now that I have a child. I read the entire book in one evening, about five hours total, and I was blown away. Have you ever read a book that made you actually burst into tears when it was done? A book that made you weep big, heaving sobs of hopelessness and fear? A book that made you thankful for your loved ones, yet also afraid of what might happen to them, and you, if the worst were to befall us? The Road was that book for me. It was bleak, depressing, horrifying, gut-wrenching, terrifying — and I was completely unable to put it down until I had finished it all. The ending made me feel so…sad. Without giving anything away, I felt like the main character had endured so much and made so many sacrifices…and for what? But upon further reflection, I realized that there was a purpose to it all, and a message. And sitting back and discussing the book since then, I find it a little more able to uplift me and give me some hopeful feelings.
But at the time, it just made me afraid to go to sleep.
It’s interesting to compare and contrast The Road to the other books that I bought at the same time. I got Stephen King’s “Cell,” newly out in paperback. I do love Stephen King, but Cell was just OK…I thought it started out with great promise, but sort of fell apart about 3/4 of the way through, and the ending really didn’t do it for me at all. I also got “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War,” by Max Brooks. I’m still wading through it, a little at a time. It’s very effective - it’s a satire, you see. Max is the son of that other funny Brooks, Mel. I really enjoyed Max’s tongue-in-cheek survival manual, “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead,” and “World War Z” is just as satisfying, though different.
The Road was definitely in a completely different vein than the King or Brooks books that I got at the same time. It’s odd that it’s the book I chose to read first, because it could then color my perceptions of the things I read after it. I’m not sure if I want to read more books by McCarthy just yet, but I probably will eventually. But I don’t know if another book will ever touch me in the way The Road did - in a way that felt like a knife straight into my heart.
I finally caved and have started reading the Harry Potter series. I figure, what the hell…now that it’s almost over, I might as well see what all the fuss is about. I still contend that the 
