At the end of 2010, a nifty little item arrived from Quirk Books, the publisher of such titles as Dracula’s Heir, Night of the Living Trekkies, The Encyclopedia Shatnerica, and of course, their most popular offering, the zombie/classic lit mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: a Mix Tape!

The image above was on the cover of the cassette case (click image to see the full view, including the actual tape), and inside was what looked like a cassette tape, but upon further inspection, I saw that it was actually a USB flash drive. A message inside explained that because the good folks at Quirk Books love me soooooo much, they put together a mix of songs as a thank you.

It’s nice to be loved.

This first-ever Quirk Mix Tape includes 17 songs, like “Buffy The Vampire Slayer Theme” (Nerf Herder), “You Give Love A Bad Name” (Bon Jovi), “All You Zombies” (The Hooters), and “Nightclubbing” (Iggy Pop), and closing up the playlist is “Closing,” the great proclamation of thanks by Steve Martin.

Along with the songs, the 1 GB flash drive also contains a PDF with explanations as to why each song was chosen for the mix — all picked by the staff at Quirk, along with the publisher’s Spring 2011 catalog, otherwise known [by me] as Stuff To Drool Over.

Quirk is known for their clever literary mash-ups, but before they hit it big with zombies, sea creatures, and androids, the imprint’s niche was humorous handbooks and survival books. When my friend was studying to become a lawyer, I gave him Quirk’s Law School in a Box kit, hoping to save him $100K. It didn’t sway him, but he did laugh his ass off.

Browsing over the Spring 2011 catalog, I already see some titles I can’t wait to get my hands on, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After (finishing out the PPZ trilogy this March); The Meowmorphosis (seems like a bizarre take on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, coming this May); and The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook (want, want, want; due out this May).

I’m off to listen to some free tunage, but be on the lookout here at Geeks of Doom for reviews on some of Quirk’s upcoming books.

Oh! And I also received a separate package with a very very cool, totally up-my-alley Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-themed package from Quirk, so I’ll be posting pictures of that Doom Delivery here in the near future.