Awesome Books

Roger Ma’s Zombie Combat Club gets its first book 4/6/10; Zombie Combat Manual is packed with 320 pages of illustrations and accounts on surviving hand-to-hand battles with the undead.

Firefly captains can learn the New Canaan run with the Atlas of the Verse: Volume One; the giant 12″x16″ book features 26 full-color pages and 11 planetary systems on 100 lb. paper.

Limited to a single print run, the Collector’s Edition of the Final Fantasy XIII Guide is a 272-page hardcover that includes walkthroughs, extras, and a bonus 16-page story overview.

The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon is written for young mariners, but with 101 tips that include brewing biofuel, fighting sharks, and waging paintball sea battles, it’s for the young-at-heart, too.

Moleskine’s Wine Journal is ideal for budding sommeliers–as long as they’re sober enough; each includes six themed sections, a wine glossary, and double expandable inner pocket.

Available 2/24/10: if your braaaain found Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a bit too dense, this set of 30 postcards pictorially merges Victorian romance with ultraviolent zombie mayhem.

Collected from the papers of “monstrologists”, Compendium Monstrum is a pocket-sized volume with “19th century” sketches, maps, and notes on vampires, werewolves, and zombies.

Ask A Ninja’s Ninja Wisdom Deck is a collection of 50 deadly meditations including the ninja code and ninja philosophy; it’s perfect for non-ninjas, as long as the deck doesn’t kill you first.

Kazu Kibuishi’s much-loved Copper comic strip is now available as a book; it’s a more esoteric version of Calvin and Hobbes with beautiful illustrations and Kazu’s trademark subtle humor.

Make books like War and Peace even denser than they already are with these Vise Bookends; made out of solid iron, each set features turnable steel screws and wooden handles.

We can’t forgive him for Jar Jar, but George Lucas does know how to make a buck or two at the box office; Blockbusting is his take on the 300 most successful movies of all time.

V.R. pioneer Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not A Gadget is a manifesto on the dangers of Web 2.0 outpacing cultural needs; in it, he tackles issues such as mob behavior and collectivism.

Learn how to tackle a weighty problem, video game-style with Cutting Myself In Half; it’s the true story of how 14-year old Taylor LeBaron went from 300 lbs to 150 lbs in only 18 months.

Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) is indeed targeted at free range kids (with parental supervision); it includes supergluing fingers and looking at the sun.

Penney Design is the latest to get in on the retro book cover fad, but they do a triple mashup mixing modern movies, old books, and cartridge games; one copy of 2D Avatar, please.

The Rocketeer: The Deluxe Complete Edition is a tribute to Dave Stevens, who sadly passed in 2008; his comic inspired the 1991 film and is included along with never-before-seen drawings.

A must-have for mobile bros, Bro on the Go is the companion to The Bro Code; it packs 144 pages of new rules in a pocket-friendly size, including Bro at the Beach and Bro in Outer Space.

ESPN’s College Basketball Encyclopedia is a true full-court press at 1,232 pages with overviews of all 335 D-I teams, season-by-season summaries, and brackets for every NCAA tournament.

Due out 1/6/10, Mega Man: Official Complete Works is 200 pages of Mega-awesome; it’s packed with 20 years of artwork including characters, box art, promo art, and rare art pieces.

Because a big planet needs a big book: the limited edition Earth Atlas stands two feet tall by 18 inches wide, with 480 pages and 800 images; it’s “only” $4,800 before 1/1/2010.

Although its ink is not as sanguine as the original comics, the KISS Kompendium is definitely epic: its 1,280 pages contain every KISS comic book with a foreword by Gene Simmons.

John Dies At The End may sound like an insta-spoiler, but rewards with a soy-sauce induced trip filled with beer, FPS games and fantasy flicks; it’s by Cracked.com’s David Wong Jason Pargin.

The Onion’s been hitting it out of the bulb park lately with videos, but Our Front Pages is good old pulp; the 304 page book covers 21 years of hilarious headlines, stories, and fine print.