The "Mad Men"-Modern Library connection

Last night was the premiere of "Mad Men," a show I am predictably obsessed with but refuse to apologize. I won't spoil anything about the episode in case you're behind, but wanted to point out a tidbit -- the song played over the end credits is a British Invasion cover called "Tobacco Road," referencing the Erskine Caldwell novel of the same name. Better than the book, anyway. Listen to it here to jog your memory.

Plenty of other worthy tomes have been mentioned in the series so far; Flavorwire has an exhaustive round-up.

"Instead of being saved from bad weather and a sprained ankle, this time it's from a giant octopus."

Via a Facebook friend: Quirk Books, publishers of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, will crash the release date for the new Dan Brown book with its latest mash-up, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS, about "Elinor and Marianne Dashwood contending with giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed serpents and other ferocious sea monsters as they set out on their quest for love."

S&S&S will be co-written by Ben H. Winters, P&P&Z author Seth Grahame-Smith being occupied with the fictional biography ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. I did not make that title up.

To follow up on the last list, here are yet five more classic novels that could be improved by adding zombies:

TOBACCO ROAD -- These sharecroppers are already ugly caricatures of Southern life; at least introducing a family of zombie sharecroppers would give you someone to root for.

THE TIN DRUM -- This year already saw the screen debut of zombie Nazis, so it's really a short hop to zombie Nazi-era self-inflicted dwarfs.

CATCHER IN THE RYE -- What were those children running from, anyway? Holden Caulfield was right when he said the people around him were phonies, but he should have been more specific as a survivor of the Zombie Wars of New York City. (Tomorrow on Wormbook: I am raided by the Salinger estate!)

PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT -- Because shiksas have been taking it on the chin for too long.

MADAME BOVARY -- Emma knows he's a zombie, but she's still in love with him, and his fragrant bite makes her thirst for something better than her bourgeois home. It's like TWILIGHT for married people.