I Am Legend

"In the second he had felt no heartbeat beneath his trembling fingers, the core of his brain seemed to hav epetrified, sending out jagged lines of clcification until his head felt like stone. Slowly, on palsied legs, he had sunk down on the bed. And now, vaguely, deep in the struggling tissues of thought, he did not understand how he could sit there, did not understand why despari did not crush him to the earth. But prostration would not come. Time was caught on hooks and could not progress. Everything stood fixed. With Virginia, life and the world had shuddered to a halt."

"Slowly he dug, pushing the shovel into the soft earth, the bright sun pouring heat into the little clearing like molten air into a dish. Sweat ran in many lines down his cheeks and forehead as he dug, and the earth swam dizzily before his eyes. Newly thrown dirt filled his nostrils with its hot, pungent smell."

These are a couple reasons why I stayed up late to finish I Am Legend. Only 170 pages long, there was no logical reason for me to take longer than a few days to read the book. But, in my opinion, Matheson's writing was perfectly descriptive. His word choice and sentence fluency together makes for a easy, smooth, thrilling read. I was warned by my friend that this book had freaked her out in high school. So, I was prepared for sleepless nights upon beginning the read. A tale of vampires that seek fresh blood each night isn't quite the bedtime story that most would want to read, but I really liked it. I wasn't scared at all. It was intense, but did not scare me. The main character, Robert Neville, swollows his sadness away in too much whisky and is quick to anger. But I guess being the only human left on earth could lead to a touch of depression. It was violent at times, but the language was clean. I found the book to be clever and I didn't want to put it down. And though Marcus and Sam Mangum both will argue that the "movie is more accurate than the book" (very funny guys), I am planning on the movie being very different, which I know will disappoint me, but I'm sure will entertain.