PrincessAyeka12 gave me the fabulous idea of coming up with what books and authors each princess would like to read. We already know that Belle's a bookworm, but what would the other princesses spend hours flipping through, totally lost to the outside world? I had a lot of fun with this article, since I love reading. I've read at least one book from most of these authors, although not all of them. All credit for this idea goes to PrincessAyeka12! All images made by me.

Snow White

I get the distinct feeling that Snow would just adore classic children's books such as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and all its sequels, and C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. She would enjoy the whimsy and lighthearted fun of all of these, and would probably connect with the strong religious themes in the Narnia books. I also couldn't get the idea of her reading Isabel Allende's work out of my head. I think she would connect with Allende's strong yet still feminine protagonists who must overcome the trials of life, just as how Snow suffered abuse under her stepmother.



Cinderella

Cindy is one classy lady, and I definitely think she would fall in love with the works of Jane Austen and all three Brontë sisters. It's so easy for me to imagine her curled up reading Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre. She'd adore the stories of strong young women such as herself finding love against all odds. I also wouldn't be surprised if she enjoyed Charles Dickens as well, since a lot of his stories showcase poor and unlucky but kindhearted characters finding riches and happiness, and that's exactly what happened to Cindy herself!



Aurora

I had a really tough time coming up with what our dear Rose would enjoy, but I kept coming back to the idea of her reading Dickens. A lot of Dickens' characters are trapped by their station in life, and I think Aurora feels the same about herself, although she's trapped by her royal blood rather than poverty. Ultimately, I feel like she'd have similar taste as Cindy, probably enjoying Austen and the Brontë sisters quite a bit as well. Unlike Cindy, though, I can imagine her having a guilty pleasure for those $1 paperback romance novels you can buy at the supermarket. The idea of her reading one of those kind of cracks me up, but I can definitely see it. She's like me in that she likes the idea of rebellion, but not the actuality of it, and I think reading romance novels would satisfy that craving for disobedience she has. She'd hide them under her bed and only read them when no one was around. Also, since she lived in the 14th century, she'd definitely read some Chaucer, although I'm not convinced she'd enjoy all of his work.



Ariel

Since Ariel was so fascinated by the strange human society that was just above the surface, I think she'd adore sci-fi, especially space operas, where the characters have to interact with aliens. Sci-fi has new cultures and ideas and adventures, all of which she enjoys. She'd love Frank Herbert's Dune and the works of Octavia Butler and Samuel R. Delany. I think she'd also like magical realism, such as the works of Gabriel García Márquez and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, and probably fantasy to a lesser extent. I just feel like she'd enjoy really weird, slightly disturbing stuff. After all, she was fascinated by humans, which other merpeople found exceedingly strange since humans pollute the oceans and kill fish. She'd probably love Neil Gaiman's works.



Belle

We already know Belle likes Shakespeare and fairy tales, but what else would she enjoy? I think she would be a huge fantasy nut. She reads for escapism, and fantasy is pretty much the most escapist genre you can find. She'd definitely be one of those people who knows every tiny detail about Middle Earth, and even speaks J. R. R. Tolkein's elvish language. She'd have read all of his major fantasy works, including The Silmarillion. I think she'd also be a massive Potterhead, and have read all the Harry Potter books ten times over. She'd also devour everything by Robin Hobb, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Terry Pratchett. Her guilty pleasure would definitely be Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. She'd also love retellings of classic fairy tales, such as what Robin McKinley writes.



Jasmine

With her outspoken nature, I think Jas would go for feminist literature. She doesn't like being trapped because of her duties as a princess, so I can definitely see her poring over the works of Virginia Woolf, bell hooks, and Margaret Atwood. She'd get super excited about whatever she happened to be reading and tell anyone who'd listen how enlightening it is. Like Aurora, I feel like she'd have a guilty pleasure of cheap romance novels, but I don't think she'd be ashamed to read them in public. Instead she'd probably defend the genre by talking about how it's the only female dominated literary genre and it deserves more respect. At the same time she'd critique them, though, since the genre tends to be populated by damsels in distress and Mary Sues.



Pocahontas

Since she adores nature, it's easy to imagine Poca loving environmental literature. She could get super into the works of Barbara Kingsolver, Ruth Ozeki, and T. C. Boyle. I bet she'd enjoy foreign authors as well, like Haruki Murakami, since she's interested in other cultures. She'd read lots of translated work. She might enjoy historical fiction as well, like Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.



Mulan

I'm not sure Mulan would prefer a particular genre, so much as she would love any book that has a strong female protagonist. A particular author I think she'd enjoy is Tamora Pierce, who writes fantasy novels about women chasing their dreams despite society's ideas about a proper lady. She'd definitely identify with Alanna from Pierce's Song of the Lionness series, who disguises herself as a boy in order to become a knight.



Tiana

With her no-nonsense lifestyle, Tia strikes me as someone who would almost exclusively enjoy literary fiction. Since she's a no-frills, get-down-to-business kind of person, I feel like she would especially love Ernest Hemingway. His writing style is very sparse, and he gets straight to the point, but he always manages to do a lot with very little. I think Tia would appreciate this. Since she lived during the 1920s, she definitely would have read some F. Scott Fitzgerald, although I don't think she would enjoy him as much as Hemingway. She'd also enjoy black feminist authors like bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker because she would intimately identify with their struggles. I also feel like she would enjoy Brian Jacques's Redwall series, since it's about a society entirely about animals, and one of the things I remember most about those books is how sumptuously the feasts were always described. Tia loves cooking and spent some time as a frog, so I think she'd have a soft spot for this series.



Rapunzel

Punz has an incredibly active mind and imagination, so I expect she would devour mysteries. Agatha Christie would be her favorite, since she's the queen of the mystery novel, but she'd also enjoy the Nancy Drew books, and of course Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Also, since she was trapped in a tower for her whole childhood and wasn't allowed into the outside world, I bet she would have a thing for memoirs and biographies. It would be a way for her to get to know real people that really lived, and a unique way for her to explore her new society.



Merida

Mer's not the type to read much, but I honestly think she'd love a lot of today's young adult literature. It's filled with strong female protagonists who go against their dystopian societies, and she'd definitely see a lot of herself in them. She'd love Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series and Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy, but her favorite would be Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. I bet she'd practically idolize Katniss Everdeen, especially since they both love archery.



I hope you enjoyed this article! I had so much fun writing it. Do you agree with what I think the DPs would read? Let me know in the comments!