How to get people to read classic literature

How? Update classics with plotlines about zombies, of course.

The new book by Seth Grahame-Smith, published by Chronicle Books, combines the original text by Jane Austen with new, expanded accounts of flesh-eating zombiism. Furthermore, it comes with “20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice)”.

(Possible correction: it's actually Quirk Books, which I suppose is a Chronicle Books imprint.) The publisher's website describes the book as follows:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton-and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers-and [sic] even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.*

Austen's got her own loyal following, of course. Further, the copyright has long expired on Pride and Prejudice, and I suppose this is a form of fan fiction. I'd love for students to comment on this kind of book in terms of the issues we're discussing: building readership, maintaining literary quality, and so forth.

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*Note, by the way, how the publisher's description incorrectly uses a hyphen (-) instead of an em dash (—).

What book would you like to see back in print?

Bookfinder has released a list of "the top 10 most sought-after out-of-print books in America in 2008." The only "celebrity' book on the list is Madonna's photo book Sex (quickly sold sold, then tanked, now desired again). I'm kind of amazed at some of the others, and especially at the last two, which suggest a continuing market for high-quality books about craft.

What books would you like most to see republished? One of my childhood favorites was D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, which was out of print for decades and finally republished. This was published by New York Review Books, which specializes in bringing out-of-print classics back into publciation. There's a brisk business republishing great books. Another great publisher in this area is Hard Case Crime, which republishes old classic hardboiled detective novels alongside new novels in the same style. They also commission new, slightly slutty paintings for all their covers. I discovered the just-deceased Donald Westlake through Hard Case Crime.

New York Review Books publishes classic fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. Hard Case Crime publishes old and new hardboiled fiction. What books would you like to see back in print? Can you imagine a publisher that would specialize in a particular area of reprinting? How would you go about it? Questions for thought and possible repsonse.