Those living in Forks, Washington truly appreciate their library and are especially glad it keeps late opening hours that suit some of the shinier readers in the area. When Twilight comes around, the desk is buzzing with folk looking hungrily for their next good read.
Bella Swan
Bella aches for her true path in life. She is heartbreakingly torn between two extraordinary men, but she knows that ultimately Edward holds her whole heart: it is sickeningly difficult to be separated from him. She likes to dream of the ravishingly beautiful life they will lead together. Bella likes to read romantasy titles, and finds Sarah J. Maas books and Carissa Broadbent's The Serpent and the Wings of Night tremendously exciting (she likes a bit of spice!).
She has also been excitedly browsing the Italian travel guide section. When she travels to Volterra, she must drink in some of the countryside. A Florence & Tuscany guidebook is just what she needs.
Bella also has, slightly self-consciously, checked out Paula Joye’s The Glow up: Your Skin, only much better. She loves how Edward’s skin sparkles and is keen to see if Joye’s tricks can give her a dewy glow.
Edward Cullen
Edward has made his views on Wuthering Heights clear: he knows Bella loves the book, but—even though he can see more of himself in the broodingly misunderstood Heathcliff than he would like—he thinks there are more compelling stories.
In fact, he has been drawn to the works of other Brontë sisters. He finds Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre deeply moving—Jane is just an ordinary governess trying to find her way in a cruel world! She should be protected!
Edward is also drawn to excruciatingly deadly stories of illness: his own connection to the Spanish Flu outbreak has made him wary of pandemics. He has recently picked up Ben Hubbard’s Plague: A History of Pestilence and Pandemics and connects to its long story of the ravages of illness upon the world.
Surprisingly, in his lighter moments, Edward is drawn to books about cats. Rationally he cannot think why, he just finds them entertaining and has been waiting for his hold on The Cat behaviour answer book to come in. Magnificently inscrutable creatures.
Jacob Black
Between being caught up in a distracting love triangle and the strange new emotions of transformation, Jacob finds reaching for the teachings of elders offers a refreshing steadiness. He is inspired by the writings of Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, and has been known to reborrow the local copy of Braiding Sweetgrass which he with him into the forest.
Likewise, as he considers his heritage, he reaches for The Wolf King. Jacob admires the powerful alpha wolf and his devotion and love—he can also truly relate to the love triangle he’s caught up in (and doesn't mind the spicy scenes!).
In fact, sometimes Jacob himself can’t concentrate on much besides his love of Bella Swan, and when he’s in that mood he turns intently to a good love story. And you know what? Maybe others will think it’s too basic, but he can’t put down Jenny Han’s The Summer I turned Pretty.
Charlie Swan
Charlie Swan is almost embarrassed to admit it, but he’s passionately fond of reading occult detective fiction. He can’t think what might have sparked the interest, but he’s always looking out for the next novel by Jim Butcher. From Storm Front onward he was hooked, and he almost can’t bear to check out Battle Ground because then he’ll have to wait for Jim Butcher to finish more books! (Psst... if you are an audiobook person, this series is read by James Marsters, the actor who played Spike in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series!)
Carlisle Cullen
Carlisle Cullen likes to keep up with investment advice: he’s not greedy, but he methodically works his way through material on the latest investment opportunities. While he doesn’t discuss his wealth much, he likes to check out each new financial management book to see if he needs to update his approach. Mostly he relies on the magic of over 300 years of compound interest, but he’s ordered in Joel Greenblatt’s The Little Investment that Beats the Market and Jeffrey L. Funk’s Unicorns, Hype and Bubbles: a guide to spotting, avoiding and exploiting investment bubbles in tech.
Already a pioneer in turning away from the drinking of human blood, Carlisle’s experience as a doctor has him thinking deeply about anemia and if it is possible for vampire-kind to supplement their bloodthirst in other ways. Dr Libby’s Fix Iron First might give him some research clues.
Esme Cullen
Esme loves nothing more than to rehabilitate a house, taking it back to its former glory. A keen participant on the “Century Homes” subreddit, she feels that home renovation might be her true calling. (Empowered matriarch of vampire clan comes a close second). She’s checked out Rebeka Morgan’s Stop dreaming and start renovating for profit: a guide to building wealth through property renovations and is keen to see if Carlisle might invest in her business ideas.
Emmett Cullen
Emmett just can’t leave the bears alone. He’s an otherwise happy-go-lucky immortal, but he’ll wrestle a bear just for a little revenge, even if it does constitute “playing with his food.” He hopes no-one has looked at his library record to see how many times he’s used the self-checkout machines to borrow Cocaine Bear. Every time he returns it, he finds himself anxiously wanting to watch it yet one more time. If he meets a bear on cocaine, he’s going to have a plan to take it down.
Alice Cullen
Alice can find herself wandering morosely on occasion. She wishes she could remember more of her youth, but at the same time she is aware that the kind of asylum in which she passed many of her mortal years was not a pleasant place. She still doesn’t have the patience to sit and read but is glad to listen to a story as she paces in agitation. She finds Brendan Kelly’s In Search of Madness: A Psychiatrists Travels through the History of Mental Illness to be paradoxically soothing. She’s also listening to Priscilla Beaulieu Presley’s Elvis and Me: once a Mississippi girl, always a Mississippi girl.
Jasper Hale is haunted by his days hunting humans: he might have a hunger for the fight, but his sensitivity to human feeling is terribly painful to him. He’s glad that he found his way to his vegetarian clan, but he sometimes a little conflicted. He’s been reading The Flexitarian Cookbook, wondering if there’s an equivalent lifestyle for vampires?
Still, when he sees a book like James Patterson’s The Texas Murders he feels coldly guilty: how many cold cases did his own spree set off?
Billy Black
Billy Black knows that myths hold wisdom and he respects the hard-won knowledge of the ancient world. It’s not his culture, but Billy is pleased to learn more about The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History. After all, he knows the story of Gilgamesh and is adamant in his belief that the ancient warrior really did descend to some underworld. His people sometimes laugh at him for it, but he holds close to a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, sure that the stories encode many true and near lost insights.
Jessica Stanley thinks Bella can be overly dramatic about her life—doesn't she know what a drag it is when your friend disappears into a morass of depression because her vampire boyfriend won’t stick around? Jessica has a lot of things to think about, and can’t stop and devote all her time to Bella. There’s friends and boys and classes and graduation and next steps to think about after all. She’s been reading the (slightly spicy) Misadventures of a Valedictorian for inspiration on how to let her hair down.