Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They’d love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

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This weeks Top Ten topic is …

Top 10 Contemporary Books That Would Be Great Paired With A Required Reading Book (like Perks of Being A Wallflower with Catcher in the Rye) OR Top Ten Books That You Wish Were Taught In Schools

Hmm… This week’s topic is a really interesting one which ever one you pick but it’s been a while since I was in school. The only required reading I had between 11 and 18 either involved Shakespeare or a contemporary, poetry, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry or reading around WWI poetry. I honestly cannot remember reading anything else. So I don’t think I could give a good answer to this week’s topic. Instead, I am going to do:

Six Books which I think should be on a Required Reading List for the topic of Vampires.

1. DRACULA by Brahm Stoker.

It is, after all, with this book that everything started.

2. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice.

I would of course encourage you to read the first four books in THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES, but this book is a must read for any vampire fan. It is, I think, the book that made many people fall in love with the vampire character.

3. GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Okay, I know a lot of people will groan at this. BUT I think Hamilton does some interesting things to the genre of the vampire with this book. For a start, the main character is a vampire hunter. Yes, there was Buffy on the TV but I think that this was one of the first books that did this. I also liked the fact that it’s pretty clear what vampires hunt and how dangerous they are.

4. VAMPIRE ACADEMY by Richelle Mead.

The first YA on the list. This book is interesting because the vampires have more Eastern European roots than either Rice or Hamilton’s vampires. It also puts vampires in a high school setting, and whilst it isn’t the first to do so I think Mead does it well. Then there’s the fact that there are two different types of vampire in this world.

5. THE IMMORTAL RULES by Julie Kagawa.

This is a slightly different take on the vampire to any of the above books, and I think it explores the genre in a unique and interesting way. It could be really interesting to compare the vampires in this book to the ones in the others.

6. MINION by L. A. Banks.

This is the only series that I have come across that features vampires who are PoC. It links with THE IMMORTAL RULES in that they both have non-white leads, which seems to be pretty rare in the genre – it might be interesting to explore this.

So there’s my list. I would have loved to include vampire books that explored vampires who are LBGT (which doesn’t include everything, and I hope is right) and if anyone has any recs they would be much appreciated. The idea behind this list was basically I wanted to treat it like a particular topic in a Lit degree. I’ve only included brief thoughts on why I would include them in a list. I would love to hear what you think about my picks, and if I’ve missed something you think should be on the list.

Thanks for stopping by.