Also, his World War Z is in fact a surprisingly good novel - and I say that as someone with a fair amount of respect for the horror genre. The Zombie Survival Guide is just funny, but WWZ is actually pretty impressive. I'm pretty sure Brooks has mentioned that Studs Terkel was an inspiration, and I'd think it quite fair to call it Working meets Night of the Living Dead.

(Dang it, I could swear I'd written up a review of it somewhere, but I can't find it now.)