The Green Frugal

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We’ve all heard about Twilight and True Blood. Some of us might even be sucked into them a little bit. But what about the books you haven’t heard of, the ones that defined what a Vampire is? What about the bone-chilling, night-crawling, no remorse kind of Vampire? What about the comedic “I’m stuck like this forEVER?!” Vampires? Or the beauty and terrifying romance of taking someone’s life to save your own?

I can’t say I’m an expert, not even close.  But I do enjoy a really good Vampire story. Luckily, there are enough genres around this one topic that we can never get bored. From the classic Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which remains the ultimate go-to Vampire read, to the newly printed Vampire Testament series by Terence Taylor. I’m just going to give a little taste here of the thousands of Vampire books you can choose from…

Looking for something funny? How about Christopher Moore’s “You Suck” and the sequel “Bite Me”.  Need a quick read in the romance section? The Dark Series – The Carpathians by Christine Feehan may tickle your fancy. Did you know that Interview with a Vampire was a book before it was a movie? Check it out! Young adult vampires? Buffy the Vampire slayer by Richie Tankersley Cusick or perhaps Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith or Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber. Ever heard of the Penny Dreadfuls? A collection of horrific short stories from the 17th century, definitely worth reading.

Here are a few favorites from employees here at Cash4Books!

• Bottomfeeder by B.H. Fingerman
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• The Vampire Earth Novels by E.E. Knight
• 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
• The Last Vampire Series by Christopher Pike

When you’re done reading all of those (haha), try a movie! More recommendations by our bloodthirsty crew:

• Let The Right One In
• Interview with the Vampire
• Underworld
• Dracula (1992 with Gary Oldman)
• Shadow of the Vampire
• Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein
• John Carpenter’s “Vampires”
• Lost Boys
• Dracula – with Bela Lugosi

These lists are a good place to start, but if you want to delve even deeper into the dark, beware what you might find… In the meantime, be careful, tread lightly, and tell me… what’s your favorite Vampire story?

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Reading is great. I like reading. Cats are great. I like cats. Combining the two can be a pain in the neck. My cat loves attention. If I’m paying attention to anything other than him, he gets jealous. He even gets jealous of the books that I read.

1. Petting Himself with Books.

Whenever my cat sees a free hand he rubs his face against it. I like to think that he’s stealing some petting. Usually, I think it’s cute and scratch his head. It’s not so cute when I’m on the couch with a book in my hands trying to read. He rubs his head against the book and I lose my place.

2. Biting the Books

When rubbing books doesn’t get the results he wants, the cat moves to more drastic measures. He bites the books, mostly around the spines or the book edges. Maybe he thinks it’s a new pet vying for my affections. I imagine this creates much anxiety in him and he must kill the new pet.

3. Sitting in Front of the Books.

If he can’t kill the new pet, the cat will climb on my lap and sit in front of the book. He does this when I sit at my computer, too. He sits nobly and stares at me. Almost as if he’s reminding me that cats were worshiped in ancient Egypt.

4. Running Like Mad

After I explain to the cat that I’m not going to worship him, I pick him up and put him on the ground. He’ll wander around aimlessly for a bit, and then suddenly remember that he’s supposed to annoy me. He starts running around; darting back and forth. Leaping on and off me like I’m part of an obstacle course.

5. Meowing

Eventually, he’ll run down the hall. And get lost. I don’t know how he gets lost; he’s less than ten feet away from me. But he can’t find me, so he starts meowing and meowing. Then, he paws at the bedroom door, because he thinks I’m in there. But I’m still on the couch. So I take pity on him and call him over. He sprints over and jumps on the couch and settles down for a nap. And then I finally get to read my book.

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If you haven’t heard by now, Stephenie Meyer has a new Twilight story out. It’s called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella. As the title suggests it’s about Bree Tanner, a vampire in Eclipse. The novella can be read online for free until July 5th.  I’ve never read any of the Twilight Saga, so the news of a new story doesn’t excite me very much. But, books that are free to read do catch my eye. Unfortunately, the tale has to be read on the website. It can’t be downloaded or printed. However, other authors offer free stories that can be saved to a computer and read anytime.

Neil Gaiman has a few stories available at his website. I suggest reading “A Study in Emerald,” a fun little story that combines Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft’s Old Gods. There’s also author‘s like Cory Doctorow, who offers all of their novels for free under the Creative Commons license (just click on the book covers on the right side to get to the download links). But, I only mention those because I like reading Science Fiction. If your interests vary, you might want to look in other places.

Project Gutenberg is a digital library. Its creator, Michael Hart, created the first electronic text in 1971 when he realized that computers could be used to store information. The website has over 30,000 ebooks available for free download. Many of them are classics, but those are fun to read, too (or maybe not if you professor is making you do it).

All of this just goes to show that there are places to get free (legal) ebooks. I’m sure there are many other authors that have free stories on their websites. Just search around a bit until you find something you like.