FORKS — Twilight Tours, a book about touring Forks and the West End inspired by the teen novel series, has been selected as part of the Washington state Summer Reads Program for this year.
Not to be outdone, Twilight itself is part of the Fall Summer Reads Program for the year.
Twilight Tours shows off the locations made famous by the saga of books set in Forks and LaPush.
Many of the photos in the book were taken by Forks Chamber of Commerce Office Manager Mike Gurling.
“I also assisted the author in reviewing the manuscript to ensure accuracy of content, and the Forks Chamber of Commerce is acknowledged for efforts in this publication,” Gurling said.
“This is the only book in the Summer Reads program that highlights the town of Forks and the Olympic Peninsula.
“The book has become a big seller to Twilight fans wherever books are sold, and it has been reviewed positively by a number of readers.”
In Port Angeles’ two downtown bookstores — Port Book and News and Odyssey — about 550 copies of the book have been sold.
In addition to information about Twilight locations of interest, the book also introduces readers to Olympic National Park and historical information about Forks.
Forks has become a hit location for fans to visit since 2006, when the first book of the four-novel series was popularized and led to a movie series that’s now reached flick No. 3.
So far this year 55,000 people have signed in at the Forks Visitor Center, Gurling said.
That compares with 45,000 at the same time last year, he said.
In July alone, 16,550 registered, he said.
“We recently did a study to determine how many visitors were not signing the register. In one two-hour period, we had someone count every person who walked in the door,” Gurling said.
“He counted 354 individuals. Of that number, only 186 visitors actually signed the register.”
A similar effort this summer yielded 98 people who came through the visitor center door who didn’t sign the register.
“This proves what we have known all along in that our numbers are conservative,” Gurling said.
“However, they do indicate the trend of those that come to Forks — although we are also aware that not everyone that comes to Forks comes to the visitor center.”
The saga of four books — which include Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn — tell the story of a teen girl, Bella Swan, and her vampire love interest, Edward Cullen.
All four books have topped the nation’s best-seller lists since their introduction, and the first three eponymous movies were box office hits.
The fourth movie will be released as two segments, released in November 2011 and November 2012.
And currently No. 2 at the nation’s box offices is a “Twilight” lampoon movie: “Vampires Suck,” based in a town named . . . Sporks.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.