Interview with the vampire is a horror novel written in 1976 by Anne Rice. This story takes place in New Orléans at 1980; on a Vampie who tells of his life to a reporter. This is the first volume of a serie entitled « Vampire Chronicles », this is to discover and popularize the myth of the romantic vampire. Thanks it Vampires become the number one literary subject. Today there exist a movie about this story. This novel was adapted into comics, manga in Japan in 1994 by Udou Shinohara, and song Moon Over Bourbon Stret Sting in 1985.
Summary and other informations about this book : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview_with_the_Vampire
I recommend just to get a different view of vampires and for discovery.
The novel has also a movie adaption which came out in 1994 and is actually good at least better than the movies on vampire there are now.