#65 I Am Legeng by Richard Matheson

This is actually a rather short book that is followed by several short stories that have nothing to do with the title work. I did not read all of the following shorts, but they were quite good.

The copy of this book that I read had a big picture of Will Smith on the cover and said "Now a major motion picture!"  The book and the movie are so totally different that you can't really compare the two.

Matheson gets really into the depressive psychological self mutilation of Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A plague has turned everyone into zombie / vampires and he is holed up in his house utterly alone. He battles the drive to survive with the anguish and guilt of being the only survivor. Matheson really likes to get into the mind of all of his characters.  He sets it up really well so that you can feel what they are feeling.  It is a little scary at times.

Neville, while on a good manic streak, heads to the local University's library and studies up on medicine to try to figure out what happened and how to combat / cure it.  He gets deep enough into medical jargon and has everything based well enough in reality to make a really plausible seeming explanation of where zombies and vampires came from. Being a medical person myself, I found this aspect really COOL!

p32
But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals or men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of a parent who drained the spirit of his child?  the vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair, but is he worse than the parent who gave society a neurotic child that became a politician?  Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with money made from handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? s he worse than the distiller who gave basterdized grain juice to stoltify the further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? ... Is he worse than the publisher who filled the ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, now, search your soul, lovie - Is the vampire so bad?
All he does is drink blood.

p78
He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect, the scrapings of futile minds, the leftovers, the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing.