What is the BEST vampire book you have ever read?

Stephen Dedman's two.  The Art of Arrow Cutting and Shadowsbite.  Both funny and scary.   Also a big fan of Sunshine by Robin McKinley.

And edited to add Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A Collins.

Anne Rice's first three, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned.  After those she loses focus.  Rich in language and imagery, too bad she lost her way in later books.  For laughs, Blood Sucking Fiends by Christopher Moore.  LMAO reading that one.  The sequel, You Suck, is ok, but nowhere near as funny as BSF. 

Yeah I'm reading Interview with the Vampire now. I'm really behind the times with books, you know.

They Thirst by Robert McCammon.  Very good.

How about 13 Bullets?

For me it would have to be Salem's Lot followed by Interview with the Vampire.

I forgot about They Thirst!  Excellent book, but then again, everything by McCammon is great.

Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse the southern vampire series is the best I have read. They have a little bit of everything. Mystery, Romance, Comedy. I could not put them down.

I have to agree with Ashley R., the Sookie Stackhouse books are great!  They can be a little cheesy at times and I've heard some people complain that the athur goes into to much back detail in her books, but I like them all a lot.  As of now I am on book #6 (there are 9 in the series so far) and I love them all.  They really do have a bit of everything in them; Vampires, Werewolfs, Fairies, shap-shifters, etc. 

Before the Sookie novels, the only Vamp books I had read was the Twilight series, which was a great series, but not for everyone.

I've also read one book by Keri Aurthur that was a good, quick read.

I wanted to try the Ann Rice series out but I've heard that it's very "wordy" and not a fun read.

I love:

The first 3 Anne Rice Interview With A Vampire books

Couldn't put down the Sookie Books.  Seriously, I work from home and this is the only series that actually got me behind in my work because I read all day while I should have been working!

I'm currenty reading Laurrell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels and I am really enjoying them.  They are much more in the horror genre than any other vampire books I've read. 

As for which is the best... I don't think I could pick!  I love the literary quality of the Anne Rice books, the addictiveness of the Sookie books, and the horror and violence in the Anita Blake series. 

Not all are vamps, some are were or mixed, but all are good authors.   

Paranormal- Female heroines    VAMPS are in BOLD

Keri Arthur

Kelley Armstrong

Jenna Black

Jacqueline Carey (explicit sex)

Karen Chance

Nancy Collins  FABULOUS

Mary Janice Davidson (very light, comic)

Mick Farren

Jeaniene Frost

Sherry Gottlieb

Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse series)

Kim Harrison

Maria Lima

Kim Newman   FABULOUS

Vicki Pettersson

Jennifer Rardin

Lilith Saintcrow

Jeanne C Stein

Sunny

Karen Taylor

Carrie Vaughn

Paranormal- misc. vamps, weres, sorcerers, etc.

Jim Butcher (wizard Harry Dresden series)

Tanya Huff (the Blood series is VAMP, and the Smoke series)

Paranormal- alternate reality

Steven Brust

Simon Green

Christopher Moore (fabulous)   Bloodsucking Fiends is VAMP

Terry Pratchett (the Discworld series)

Naomi Novik (intelligent dragons used as fighter planes)

Maria Snyder

Liz Williams

Connie Willis

Science Fiction

Ann Aguirre

Kage Baker

William C Dietz (Legion of the Damned series)

Sean McMullen

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Linnea Sinclair

Oh man-I USED to love Ann Rice-before she changed!! I also LOVE the Sookie series.

Yikes, I couldn't possibly narrow it down to just 1 favorite....would you settle for my top 10? :)

Fiend by Jemiah Jefferson (In nineteenth-century Italy, young Orfeo Ricari teeters on the brink of adulthood. His new tutor instructs him in literature and poetry during the day and guides him in the world of sensual pleasure at night. But a journey to Paris will teach young Orfeo much more. For in Paris he will become a vampire. Told in his own words, this is the story of the life, death, rebirth and education of a vampire.)

Dracul: The Return by James Wardlaw (Have you ever wondered what happened to the characters in Bram Stoker's classic novel, DRACULA? What happened to the lovely Mena or to her fiancé, Jonathan Harker? How did their lives turn out after Dracula was no longer a danger—or is Dracula ever no longer a danger? Dracul: The Vampire Returns answers these questions and more. It captures all of the horror of the original story and also the lust associated with Dracula's legend.)

Live Girls by Ray Garten (Davey's on the down and out when he loses his girl, his job and practically his sanity. While some men drown themselves in a forgiving bottle, Davey believes it's much more profitable to sink into Times Square's nightlife and lose himself inside Live Girls. They are the free ravishing pleasures who beckon Davey into a world of irresistible fantasy and ecstasy. One of them propositions him with a kiss, an insatiable kiss that leads him far from the misery he once felt to a demonic place where body and soul are sacrificed for obsessions)

They Thirst by Robert McCammon (An epic tale of an army of vampires bent on world dominion, the adrenalized, splatter-happy narrative, set in Los Angeles, reflects McCammon's pulp-horror roots even as, in its richness of character and subplot, it presages his latter work (and the influence of Stephen King). Suspenseful, exciting, and visceral--Prince Vulkan of the vampires makes a particularly nasty impression--and a treat for new-found McCammon fans)

Eternal Vigilance by Gabriel Faust (After a century of Sleep, Tynan Llywelyn has awoken to find the world he once knew utterly obliterated by a brutal war of epic proportions. In a new apocalyptic society, bitterly divided by magic and technology, the Tyst Empire has found that a hundred years of global domination is not enough to sate their thirst for power. They have discovered the secret of the vampire race and have designed a plan to seize their own sinister form of immortality with the help of an ancient vampiric god. The powerful oracle, Nahalo, has had a vision that in Tynan alone lies the power to defeat the vampiric god and the dictatorship. Cast into the midst of a global war between magic and technology, mortals and vampires, in a new world he is still struggling to define, Tynan must make the harrowing decision to save the world he so bitterly detests or stand and watch as humanity is destroyed by a primordial evil beyond all imagining)

Vamped by David Sosnowski (In the 100-odd years since Martin Kowalski became a vampire during World War II, vampires have become the majority of the world's population. Now, regular humans are so rare that most are raised on farms. Martin doesn't have much going for him until the day he discovers a six-year-old human girl fleeing the vampires who killed her mother. Martin takes her in, at first intending that she be a delightful snack. But the little girl quickly grows on him, and he finds himself longing for her laughter more than her blood.)

Vampire Winter (After Chicago is devastated by a nuclear holocaust, a vampire is desperate to find survivors to feed upon.  This book is an amazing read.)

Fevre Dream by George Martin (When struggling riverboat captain Abner Marsh receives an offer of partnership from a wealthy aristocrat, he suspects something's amiss. But when he meets the hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York, he is certain.  Marsh meant to turn down York's offer. It was too full of secrets that spelled danger. But the promise of both gold and a grand new boat that could make history crushed his resolve--coupled with the terrible force of York's mesmerizing gaze. Not until the maiden voyage of his new sidewheeler Fevre Dream would Marsh realize he had joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare...and mankind's most impossible dream.)

Bottomfeeder by B. H. Fingerman. (Phil Merman hasn't looked a day over 27 for 27 years now, ever since somebody mugged him on a subway platform, after which he found he couldn't eat, or go out in the sun without catching fire. He's a vampire, though one whose conscience compels him to feed solely on society's dregs. The only friend he has is pathetic old college pal Shelley, who's never been the same since his family perished in a mysterious fire long before Phil's mugging. Then while at a bar with Shelley, Phil meets another vampire who introduces him to more vampires. Phil almost overcomes his scruples as his new friend leads him into some harrowing adventures. Finally, he starts wondering, Why now, after 27 lonely years? The answer packs a punch that cracks the novel's exhilarating tough-guy facade.)

and, of Course, The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.  I really only liked her first 3 books though...the rest bored me.