Be Ready When The Sh*t Goes Down (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
You take one good look at the cover [which is utterly awesome, by the way], you read the title, you see the name of the author and you put two and two together: "Hey this is a comedy book" you'd think. And you'd only be half-right. At best. Now let me explain what I mean. Most of us have a silly thing we believe in - be it squatches, little green men [or "engineers" if you want to be hip and trendy], chemtrails or even an underground race of mole people who are plotting to take over the World - often, while discussing these topics with friends and trying to come across as much-less a rational person [as opposed to someone completely insane], we cover up our theories with a nice layer of humor. THAT'S Forrest's book. I do not have a shadow of doubt that Forrest Griffin believes that the Apocalypse, in some shape or form, is nearing and he is truly prepared to endure it. There are things in this book, where you can see through the jokes and spot legitimately good points that only a man who seriously explored this topic could have made: for example, not to plan your escape routs with paths going under bridges, because bridges will be blown up under "Marshal Law" and your route will be compromised; or not to plan your escape though rivers or lakes, because the water may be contaminated with a toxin (biohazard). I was like "OK, this is becoming very much real, very fast". If you strip away all the bullshit and comedy from this book, you'd be holding a very fat and informative brochure on how to survive a post-Apocalyptic environment. Also, in the portion of the book that explores the possible scenarios of the World ending, you can see that the man is very curious in life, is not just this silly monkey he likes to portray in public - these observations were made by an intelligent and witty man. To sum it up, this was a very fun AND, to my own surprise, educational read. Not the waste of time I imagined it to be... I am not proud of my prejudice. Griffin's writing smacks of the late Hunter S. Thompson's Gonzo style. I'd recommend this book for guys. Girls: not so much. Griffin can write really well, but he digresses to potty jokes one too many times for me. Other than that, the raw, driven aggression of his prose, coupled with his weird, yet overall hilarious sense of humor made me look forward to future books by he and Erich Krauss. There's even a few good factoids for survival in there. Good luck finding them in all the satire and slapstick material. Griffin's apocalyptic survival recommendations often serve as criticisms for current social problems, but I don't think anyone has to read the book that way. It's just a little something I picked up on--'cause that's what I do.
What do You think about Be Ready When The Sh*t Goes Down (2010)?
This book is hilarious. It offers a very unique look about how to survive the apocalypse.
—Lee
Not as funny as his first book, but still entertaining.
—Ronz
