The Road, a post-apocalyptic fiction and survival skills book written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006 is part of the Oprah Winfrey book club. During an interview with Oprah, McCarthy answered questions about The Road that he had never been asked before because he had never been interviewed before the interview. Oprah asked what inspired the heartbreaking book; it turns out that McCarthy wrote the book after taking a vacation with his son John. During the holiday he imagined the world fifty years later and saw fire on the distant hills. After the book was finished, McCarthy dedicated it to his son John. Throughout the book McCarthy has included things he knows he and his son would do and conversations he thinks they might have had. (Cormac). Some question whether the book is worth reading for writing classes in college courses due to the amount of common writing "rule breaking." After reading and doing the homework to follow The Road, I firmly believe that the novel should be required for more college courses like Writing and Rhetoric II. McCarthy wrote the book in a way that forces readers out of their comfort zones; the book has a fantastic plot; so carrying out the tasks is quite simple and several brilliant survival tactics are incorporated in the book. McCarthy wrote the novel in ways that force readers out of their comfort zones. He wrote The Road with a lack of punctuation that can be confusing to readers. Some critics feel that without quotation marks the book is difficult to follow. But when I read the book I discovered that after the first fifty pages I understood when the characters were speaking. Finding that I had to pay a little more attention didn't bother me... middle of paper...... to read, there are moments in front of your seat, sad and happy moments that books on the related topic don't I have. The DK Manual has no plot and is nothing more than information. Fewer students should complain about reading a novel when the alternative is reading a book full of nothing but information. The Road is worth reading not only in college classes, perhaps high school classes should read it; even more novel reading fans should pick up The Road and try to write it after fifty pages because it's not easy! Works mentioned Cormac McCarthy Bombs on "The Oprah Winfrey Show". Vulture, 6 June 2012. Web. 28 January 2014. .E Notes. Np, May 2008. Web. 2 February 2014. .McCarthy, Cormac. The road. New York: Vintage International, 2006. Print.