For those of you who are scholars, appreciate scholars, want to be a scholar, or know any scholars, here are my picks for extremely fun and actually intelligent books whose villains OR good guys are vampires.
- The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – Our heroes track a really evil somebody through Eastern Europe and some archives whose awesome staff luckily can read esoteric languages and interpret symbols (sometimes before, um, having a bad day).
- The Vampyre: A Tale by John William Polidori – Dating from 1819, this is the oldest item owned by MSEL with the subject “vampires – fiction.” It’s also available through Project Gutenberg, if you don’t mind reading blocks of text online.
- The Book of Common Dread and Blood of the Covenant by Brent Monahan – I’m really glad that Princeton University’s Firestone Library has such smart and dedicated rare books curators; otherwise, who would deal with the mysterious infernal scroll (as well as the vampire who is making life unpleasant around town)? Fun fact: This vampire plays the piano. And eats cheeseburgers.
More fun facts:
Looking for something more to sink your teeth into? We have 33 DVD/videos with the subject “vampires,” 73 books with the subject “vampires – fiction,” and 24 books with the subject “witches – fiction.”
Finally, remember: never run from anything immortal; it only attracts their attention. (The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, another favorite book of mine.)
I’m so glad that you recommended “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova. It is one of my favorite vampire books, granted it takes about 100-200 pages to really sink your teeth into the story, pun intended!
“Salem’s Lot” scared the *stuffing* out of me! Everyone should read this one; just ignore the awful movies based on it (poor James Mason; what was he thinking?). Thanks for recommending this one, and pointing out that the hero is a writer.
Unfortunately not owned by MSEL either, Stephen King’s “‘Salem’s Lot” is a pretty chilling vampire novel. As so often with King the scholar here is a writer.
Another of my absolute faves that we don’t currently own is the recent “Discovery of Witches,” by Deborah Harkness. The vampire and the witch are both university professors, he a biochemist and she a historian of science. They and a whole bunch of other, um, entities, are all doing various things in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It’s *such* fun to read! Also, Harkness is an oenophile — here she is talking about wine (and the fact that vampires like it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naIUATVxRAA
My favorite vampire book is “Sunshine” by Robin McKinley. MSEL doesn’t own it (no surprise). I have a copy if you wish to borrow.