It’s not often that I give up on a book. Partially, that’s because it’s not often that my intuition on whether or not I’ll like it winds up failing me. But fail it has. Though everyone I know has give The Zombie Survival Guide rave reviews, I’m going out on a limb, against the grain, and saying that, y’know what, world? It’s not for me.

I think the concept of the book - the premise, that is - is hilarious. Unfortunately, the book takes itself so seriously that, beyond the first chuckle, it just reads like an actual survival guide, be it for surviving the wilderness or the concrete jungle.

So rather than punish myself by forcing myself to endure the entire book, cover-to-cover (a side note: one friend recommended skipping around, but even that didn’t help), I’ve simply put it down, placed it in my BookSwim return bag, and picked up the next book. That’s one of the things I love most about BookSwim: I don’t feel as though I just wasted $14 on a book I won’t even read once.

Even though I just finished a David Sedaris‘ book, I received Holidays on Ice in my latest package and, with only three short stories to go before I finish the book (I’d read most of this pint-sized collection a few years ago), I figured I’d feel less like a quitter and more like I’m accomplishing something if I go on ahead and polish this one off. I’m just a few pages from finished already and, as always, Sedaris fails to disappoint.

I suppose I’ll have to take the guide’s sequel, World War Z, out of my rental pool.