The Beginning of the End

As anyone in the local area knows, it's been an unusually mild and warm year so far. In contrast with last year, we hardly had a winter this year at all, getting off easy with barely three snowstorms. Even the just-above-freezing temperatures ended abruptly last week, and it's been progressively more pleasant and green since then. Today is just the first day of spring, and it's currently 85 degrees outside. Now, this could mean a few things. Maybe it's just Midwest weather up to its old tricks again. Maybe fate is smiling upon us and giving us a lovely, sunny year full of beach volleyball and short shorts. Maybe we're starting to feel that climate change. Or maybe, just maybe, it's 2012 and the world is about to come to a fiery end and we're just sitting in a proverbial simmering pot waiting to boil alive.

This is the notion I'd like to entertain today.

Now, I know that sounds scary. Living in a post-apocalyptic world isn't something many of us have given a lot of thought to beyond storing a few bottles of water and some Twinkies in the garage “just in case.” But fear not! Even if you haven't got your running-from-zombie boots stashed under the bed for a quick getaway, just think of this as the beginning of a wonderful new world of possibilities. Once we're past the whole society-falling-apart thing, anything could happen! And, if we want a little peek into just a few of the possibilities, we need look no further than the 3rd floor of the library. We've got you covered.

Fiction

The Stand by Stephan King

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Ashes of the Earth, a Mystery of Post-Apocalyptic America by Eliot Pattinson

And of course, the overwhelmingly popular Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins!

Movies

The Road

The Book of Eli

9

28 Days Later

Children of Men

I Am Legend

And of course, there are many, many more out there. What do you picture when you think of the end of the world as we know it?