Books have long been a beach staple. Beach reads, they're called. Mindless prose. Romances. Mysteries. Thrillers. Read a little. Stare out at the sea awhile. Read a little more. Sleep.

But what people read at the beach can be as eclectic as what people wear at the beach. Some choices have substance. Others are, well, a bit more revealing. Sexy, even.

You might just be surprised by not only how many people are reading but what you find in a beach bum's hand.

Teen sinks teeth into a trend

Bikini-clad Jen Mills, 16, a high school junior from York, Pa., is lying on her stomach on a blue-striped beach towel, lost in the world of vampires, the megatrend in today's book world.

Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz, from her Blue Bloods series of novels, is in Mills' hands.

"It's fun," she says. "It's about a vampire, although only now is she becoming aware she's a vampire, or part vampire. Obviously vampires aren't real, but these vampires are teenagers, so I can relate."

Book club veers a little bit off its course

Sometimes a book club dons beach gear and heads out to read under the sun.

Six members of a 2-year-old book club, made up of twentysomething professionals in the Washington, D.C., area, are lined up in a row near the boardwalk. Some are reading their most recent selection, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, the best-selling novel inspired by the life of Laura Bush.

"It's a good page-turner," says Jennifer Brickett, 25, a Washington consultant and club organizer. Her fellow club members nod, agreeing that's a "must" for a beach read.

Half the club has moved on to Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, although Brickett says the book is not the official choice for the next selection.

"I introduced them all to (Meyer's teen vampire) Twilight series," says Alexis Castrovinci, 25, from Bethesda, Md.

Meyer's series "sucks you in," says Laura MacNeil, 26, a graduate student from Arlington, Va.

Reader tucks Kindle into bag

Barbara Stoms, 55, an office manager from Hampstead, Md., was the trend-setter on the beach, reading Mary Alice Monroe's Skyward on Kindle, the handheld computer from Amazon. She's not sure how she feels about it — Kindle, not the book inside. When her husband gave it to her for Christmas, she says, she didn't know what it was. "It's a good idea, but I have a hard time buying books," says the library devotee. But there she was, scrolling through the computerized book with her thumb.

The 21st-century approach aside, Stoms was reading away. "I don't have a problem reading on the beach. I can read anywhere. It keeps me from doing housework."

As for Monroe's novel of hawks and vultures and owls, she likes how the author always weaves nature into her storytelling, a natural for the beach.

Sisters go for suspense in the sand

Sisters Doris Merlini, 57, and Rita Butterbaugh, 54, both of Cassandra, Pa., epitomize beach readers who love a good thriller.

"I went to a book sale and got a lot of paperbacks," says Butterbaugh, who works for the post office but today is relaxing under a bright blue umbrella. "A beach book has to get me into it fast. I like to figure it out before the end. It has to be something that intrigues me."

She's reading Into the Night by Suzanne Brockmann. "It's about a terrorist attack on the president with a little love story with a Navy SEAL thrown in."

Over the years, she also has brought Dean Koontz and James Patterson to the beach. Koontz, she's glad to say, has mellowed. "They were so gruesome in the beginning, but he's good."

Her sister, a retired state worker, has Gregg Olsen's Heart of Ice. "It's a murder mystery," says Merlini. "There are several suspects at this point."

A good read takes her away from it all

Diana Millne, 58, who runs her own business in Huntington, W.Va., usually reads personal development books during the year. "So I like to relax at the beach. I want a take-me-away book," she says. Her choice today is Sherryl Woods' Flowers on Main, from Woods' series of novels set in the nearby Chesapeake Bay area.

She had just finished Nora Roberts' Without a Trace.

Couple go separate ways after work

Although Barbara and Bill Kessman have been married for decades and both work in the same school system, they couldn't be further apart when it comes to their beach reading.

"I like to solve mysteries," says Barbara, 56, a speech language pathologist from Crofton, Md. Her book: Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark.

Her husband, 60, a special-education teacher, was reading Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had by Brad Cohen. "It's really held my interest," he says. "I like to read about real things. Even at the beach."

Summer can be serious

Nick Lambros Jr., 29, a high school history teacher from Lebanon, Pa., took non-fiction to the extreme, picking up Yale scholar Donald Kagan's The Peloponnesian War. All 544 pages of it.

A beach read?

"Probably not," he says. "But every summer I like to read one long historic piece. A good history book."

But he concedes that he likes to read "just about everything at the beach. Sports Illustrated, even. I'm boring. I'm a guy."

Tears unexpected, not unwelcome

Sometimes your beach read can surprise even you.

Erin Grant, 42, a hairstylist from Ashburn, Va., says she "likes a light book when I'm on vacation at the beach."

"I thought I'd picked the wrong book, but now I can't put it down. I think I'm going to cry, it's so riveting." She's reading Still Alice by Lisa Genova, a novel about a woman sinking into Alzheimer's disease.

"I'm also reading (Malcolm Gladwell's non-fiction) Outliers, but I didn't want to finish that at the beach. Didn't seem right."

'God' goes with him on vacation

Off by himself sits Charles Maguire, 70, a dentist from Wilmington, Del. Blue tennis cap on his head. Tennis shoes on his feet. Book in hand.

What's he reading? The Evolution of God by Robert Wright.

"No, no, not a beach read," he says with a laugh. "But then, I'm different from a lot of people. That's the key to happiness."

Maguire says he has long been interested in the historical Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. "I like to see where it all comes from. He (the author) is looking into the image of God and how it evolves."