I'm a vampire junkie. A huge Buffy and Angel fan, I even liked Moonlight up until those last four episodes. So when I heard that True Blood was going to be an HBO new series, the first thing I did was start reading Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mystery books that the series is based on.

The books were my guilty pleasure, my trashy beach read. There is a little something for everyone in the books: vampire lore, humor, romance, adventure, mystery. Not deep, but enjoyable.

The premise of True Blood is that vampires are living among people publicly, since synthetic blood has been marketed to satisfy them nutritionally. Sookie Stackhouse, the lead, is a telepath and falls for Bill Compton, a new vampire in town. There's a murder mystery that will span the first season, at least, and all the adventures that Sookie encounters because of her telepathy and association with the vampires.