I guess I'm just a dog person

I've always been a fan of vampire stuff: movies, TV shows, books. Of couse I probably liked The Count when I watched Sesame Street, and The Lost Boys was great (mmm, Keifer Sutherland, yummy), but my obsession started with the Anne Rice books. Then Buffy, and - embarrassingly - Twilight, and now the Sookie Stackhouse books and True Blood.

I had a weird love/hate relationship with the Twilight books. Edward just seemed too fatherly for me, and while I was hooked on the books, they really irritated me at the same time. Ever since the second book, New Moon, I rooted for Jacob. His character was so much more developed than Edward, his relationship with Bella was way more compelling, and she seemed to blossom with him in a way that she did not with Edward. They really had fun together, and didn't spend whole pages staring into each others eyes or glaring one another down. I knew how the book would end, I knew she'd never go with Jacob and that Edward would win out, and yet I really wanted Bella to come to her senses and choose Jacob.

Now my newest obsession in the vampire world is the Sookie Stackhouse book series by Charlaine Harris, and the related HBO series, True Blood. I can't decide which I like better - the books or the TV show. I mean, on one hand, in the TV show, I don't have to trudge through Harris' choppy writing style, but when I'm reading the books, at least I don't have to hear Bill say "Suckah." (What's up with that anyway? Is that how they would have said Sookie in Louisiana in the 1800's?) Sam, I am happy to say, is as compelling on screen as he is in the books. I've only read through the second book and I'm still watching the first season of True Blood, so I don't yet know how it's going to go. But as of now, count me on Team Sam. (Not as nice a ring to it as Team Jacob, but I'm sticking with it.)

I started thinking this morning, maybe I'm just a dog person? The only other vampire series I was into that had a werewolf was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Seth Green's Oz was one of my favorites. As a love interest though, not so much. Then again, the vampires in that show (the love interest ones at least, Angel and then Spike) were so much more compelling and developed than Edward Cullen or Bill Compton (again, so far), and of course Oz was never in love with Buffy, so I didn't need to turn to the resident dog.

For now, I am very much rooting for Sam, but I fear he will go the way of Jacob. I'm at least hoping to not have to see Sam fall in love with ... well, I'll stop there in case you haven't read as much Twilight as I have.