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Great vampire books ... that aren't related to 'Twilight' or 'True Blood'

By Lorena Nava Ruggero

With the third season of True Blood, the new Eclipse movie and a slew of vampire books in stores, it's quite the vamp-filled summer.

While I've enjoyed many tales of the undead, including Interview with a Vampire and Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries, there are few I'd read again. From contemporary to classic, here's a roundup of my favorite far-out fanged fiction:
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- Dracula illustrated by Edward Gorey -- This is Bram Stoker's classic, but features drawings by the incomparably macabre Edward Gorey. Finding this on the Barnes & Noble clearance rack is my favorite book-related moment of serendipity.

- Life Sucks by Jessica Abel and Gabriel Soria -- What if a new vampire had to work an eternity of graveyard shifts at his master's convenience store? Illustrating the even darker side of immortal life, this graphic novel is a favorite because of its art, humor and characters.

- Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi -- Introduced to the world of half-vampire, half-human D during a teenage foray into Japanese anime, it wasn't until a decade later that I discovered Kikuchi's novels. Equal parts gothic lit and post-apocalyptic sci-fi, D is the calm in a manic storm of crazed creatures and characters in this action-packed series.

- Hellsing by Kouta Hirano -- Alucard, a powerful vampire and tool of the clandestine Hellsing Organization, protects England from the Vatican's religious warriors and Nazis intent on creating the Third Reich. It's a bloody and violently drawn Japanese graphic novel series, but that's what makes it so good.

-- Sunshine by Robin McKinley -- Rae "Sunshine" Seddon is a normal coffeehouse baker until vampires kidnap her, turning her life upside-down. A magical story told through Sunshine's acerbic voice, this is a book that Neil Gaiman called "pretty much perfect" and I completely agree.

-- Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe -- This is the book that started my lifelong love of vampires. As a young bookworm, this tale of a vegetable-loving, vamp-like bunny made me laugh while introducing me to blood-sucking book tropes.

Lorena Nava Ruggero is a San Diego-based writer who curses the mispronunciation of her first name because of a crazed vampire on True Blood.

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