A great start if you're just getting into vampire lore. It gives you a chapter on vampires in general, followed by ways that vampires are formed and what type of people are most susceptible to becoming one, and the rest of the chapters are about vampire lore in different countries, usually told through stories from various time periods. Then there is a chapter for miscellaneous vampire things that don't fit elsewhere, a chapter on living vampires, and finally, a chapter on whether or not vampires actually exist.It's not a book bogged down with detail after detail about vampires, but it's a start, an introduction, if you will, into the lore surrounding the vampire. From there, you can pick an area and narrow your focus if you choose. ( )