I wish I had HBO

I wish that I could be one of those viewers tuning in this Sunday to the premier of HBO's newest original series, but I won't be. No, I'll have to wait until the show comes out on dvd and until then will have to satisfy myself by reading the books. 

I've not read Charlaine Harris's series at all just yet. I decided that now was the best time to start so that I would feel like I wasn't missing out too much. And, until the dvd does hit shelves roughly one year from now, I'll be incredibly jealous of all of you who do get to watch it (mom!).

If you're like me and you still haven't read these books, and want to read along, here's a little bit about the series:

Sookie Stackhouse lives in Bon Temps, Louisiana, where she works as a waitress at Merlotte's, the local dive. She's also psychic. Vamps have been out and socially about for four years, but Sookie has yet to meet one of her very own, until now. Bob walks into her bar and Sookie realizes that unlike everyone else, she can't hear his thoughts at all. And then she has to save him from people looking to drain him for his blood - the next big thing in mind blowing drugs for humans. Add to that a series of murders in town that may or may not be the result of the vic's vamp "relationships" and you've got one of the first series of this kind.

Sure they're all over these days, but Dead Until Dark first hit shelves in 2001, Laurel K. Hamilton's debut Anita Blake title, Guilty Pleasures, came out in 1993, and Jim Butcher's first Harry Dresden title, Storm Front, came out in 2000. By contrast, Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking didn't hit shelves until 2004. These are, in my opinion, the beginning of today's booming urban fantasy genre. The Sookie Stackhouse books go in my stack of "I can't believe it's taken me this long to read this!" stack. 

I've got the first three here and over a year to catch up on all 8 books in the series thus far.