In which I mourn lazy Sundays, fall for R, and have a belated zombie revelation

Today's books

My day

3:30pm
It's been a little harder to read at the shop today.  I've been writing letters and reading blog posts and drifting quietly on my own thoughts... but lordy, it definitely feels like the kind of Sunday where you'd rather be flat out on the bed at home eating cookies and watching telly.  I didn't really want to get up this morning.  It's funny how even though I've been working every Sunday for three and a half years now, it still FEELS like Sunday.  Like I'd really rather everybody just pissed off back to their roast dinners 'n' relaxation as Nature intended, instead of doggedly coming out shopping so we can't have OUR lazy Sundays any more either.  Some Sundays are quite nice, it's true - relaxed, friendly, kind of pleasant - but on other weeks everyone's so bloody miserable, trudging around in their hiking boots and anoraks sniping at everything, that you really do wish they hadn't bothered.  Or maybe it's just me...

Anyway, I HAVE been reading, slowly but surely, though I'm definitely not at the 30 pages I day I was quietly aiming for.  I've been moving a piece of paper in 30-page increments through the book each morning, watching my bookmark lagging further and further behind, ha!  I don't mind too much though, because I've got the day off on Tuesday to finish it before we head out to the movie showing in the evening.  PLENTY of time...

So, what's been happening in Zombieland since yesterday?  PLENTY OF THINGS is the answer, though it's getting harder to write about without plastering huge spoiler banners across the post.  So I'll try to pick out some awesome thoughts to share WITHOUT giving too much away or killing the story, okay?  Okay.  But you have been warned - I'm about two thirds of the way through the book now so if you're a total "I WANT TO KNOW NOTHING BECAUSE I'M READING IT NEXT WEEK!" kind of person, now would be the time to close your eyes and hum.  :)

 

The most important thing is that R has sneaked INTO THE STADIUM to see Julie, because he is now far enough improved from his all-zombie state to make him passably human.  Ish.  If nobody looks too closely.  So far he has discovered that, if anything, Living schools are even more barbaric than Dead ones (jarringly so - you start to wonder who the bad guys really are here, the semi-feral zombies or the cold-blooded Living soldiers?), AND he has been reunited with Julie within the labyrinth of mini-skyscrapers inside the Stadium walls.  Onwards!

 

 

8:30pm

Ohhh, a sly allusion to Romeo and Juliet.  ISAAC MARION, I LOVE YOU.  Very clever, having Julie on her balcony while R eavesdrops from the yard, monologuing to a taped personal diary, musing on how she's missing R, getting annoyed at the division between the Living and what they themselves have branded 'zombies' because... you guessed it... 'what's in a name, right?'  Wait a sec.  R and Julie.  R AND JULIE.  Omigod, I am so dense sometimes!  *slaps self repeatedly around head with a book*  Of course.  The general's daughter and the boy she shouldn't love...  Well done Ellie, how many times have you typed the words "R and Julie" over the last few days and NOT spotted that?  OH MY GOD.  Wait a minute, wait a MINUTE.  R's best friend is M... for Mercutio?  And Julie's fiesty friend Nora wants to be a nurse.  A NURSE!  Ohhhh you guys.  Eyes opened, mind blown.  I am going to have SO much fun rereading this book and seeing what else I can spot. aren't I?

 

Oh, and can I also just say?  THIS:

"She catches my eye and gives me a sad smile, as if to apologise for not warning me.  But I'm not afraid of the skeletons in Julie's closet.  I look forward to meeting the rest of them, looking them hard in the eye, giving them firm, bone-crunching handshakes."

THIS is the moment that R officially went from being an unconventional but dashing leading man into full-on literary crush material.  First Bram and now R... zombies got hot, ladies!

 

I'm going to sign off there for now, just because it's getting kinda late and I'm at work tomorrow and I have to make, like, shopping lists and stuff for on my way to the shop in the morning - but I might read a bit more tonight anyway.  And HOPEFULLY tomorrow it won't be an inset day and the kids will be safely back in classrooms, which means a lovely peaceful day for me to crush on this amazing book a little bit more.  Sounds perfect, doesn't it?  :)