A good book...a good life.

Some food for thought (quite literally) : what makes a good book? Well, as I am somewhat of a professional on this subject :P let us please discuss and i mean DISCUSS!! comments are more than welcome in any/all of my blogs, but especially this one. I find comments welcome and helpful, especially to my own writing.
Anyway...do you know how many books have ever been written? I certainly don't, but I imagine that out of all of those, there are bound to be quite a few so called: "unoriginal" points. There are only so many ways to meet a person, there are only so many ways to fall in love, there is only one idea of the original vampire/werewolf, and I imagine that those people who try to make up new versions of mythological creatures are trying to be original....but it doesn't work. sorry.
The reason that they are called 'mythological' is that their origin resides in actual historical events. You cannot make up historical events. Nor can you make up a creature and try to call it the same thing as another creature. It is okay to make a sub-species, but you cannot expand on what a creature is with your own idea.
You know where I am going with this, don't you? The Twilight "saga". Brahm Stoker is the father of this creature. You cannot make Dracula sparkle, Stephanie, you just CAN'T. In the very first book, she told her audience directly that her "vampires" do not sleep in coffins, are not burned by the sun, they're enemies are wolves, etc. Therefore, they are NOT vampires. And for those of you who do not know, Brahm Stoker's vampires control wolves.
So how does one make a great, original book? Well for one thing, you do NOT rewrite a book that you have read because you do not like the ending...I mean, you can, you just cannot publish it. If you want to create new creatures, you may, just give them a new name. I love it when authors employ ancient mythological creatures though, and I am sure that you can find one that matches your criteria because there are simply so many already made.
Thought for the day: Look up mythological creatures and read about one that you know little about. you will also learn your history by doing so!