I was the same way. For me it helped to get books that had an associated movie or tv series, that was it was not 100% new to me. I started with the Southern Vampire Mysteries, True Blood starts of pretty much the same, but then deviates, so ends up a bit confusing. Also read the first Dexter (must continue as very enjoyable) and Silence of the Lambs (still engrossed me even though I had seen the movie about 10 times as it was so well written).

Collections of short stories by different authors are good for getting a feel of some authors and some series.