schlechte zeiten für gespenster

i mentioned on my other blog about doing a vampire related post here...partly due to halloween and partly because of the vampire explosion of late.
i love vampires and i love vampire literature, film, culture, etc...i even wrote my honor's thesis on vampirism is scandinavian folklore and blood drinking in viking history...truly weird, right?

my friends are always asking me if i like twilight or the vampire diaries...i read the first twilight book and it was alright (i preferred the movie). i do see the appeal to the young adult crowd, although i think i would've hated the whole thing when i was 14 (i was a vampire lit snob back in the day). i haven't read the vampire diaries books but i think the show is pretty good so far.

i love hbo's show true blood, as well as, charlaine harris' southern vampire series of books; which the show is based on (the show is very different from the books). it's good, light, page-turning reading and harris does an excellent job on character development. i'm addicted and if they could go on forever i would read them forever!

right now i'm reading laurell k. hamilton's anita blake: vampire hunter series...i'm on the second book the laughing corpse and they are alright. i hope they get better further into the series.

anyways, i think there are some must reads in the vampire genre of literature...and i certainly have not read everything out there so if there's anything you want to add in the comments, please feel free! i love recommendations.

but first! the book pictured above...i picked it up a long time ago, where, i cannot remember. the whole book is in german and that means i can't really read it, but i still love it. the illustrations are wonderful (including the super neat moving bat on each page corner)...the title in english reads, bad times for ghosts, and i believe it's also a episode of a tv show (maybe?).

back to vampire literature...here are my recommendations:

^o^ dracula by bram stoker
^o^ carmilla by j. sheridan le fanu
^o^ interview with the vampire by anne rice
(as well as the vampire lestat and the queen of the damned...don't bother with the rest)
^o^ the vampyre by john william polidori
^o^ varney the vampire or the feast of blood (a penny dreadful) by james malcolm rymer
^o^ the hunger by whitley strieber
^o^ salem's lot by stephen king
^o^ the historian by elizabeth kostova
^o^ let the right one in by
^o^ the demon lover by dion fortune
^o^ the vampire tapestry by suzy mckee charnas
^o^ our vampires, ourselves by nina auerbach - not literature, but critique

schlechte zeiten für gespenster by w.j.m. wippersberg
1984, benziger
illustrated by käthi bhend-zaugg