Explore the most comprehensive Rory Gilmore Reading List of 500+ books referenced in Gilmore Girls. It includes the revival on Netflix and some hidden gems. You’ll enjoy tracking your reading (and re-watching) with the free printable Rory Gilmore book list and our Instagram community. Let’s get literary!
About The Rory Gilmore Book Club and Reading Challenge
The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge took off after Buzzfeed highlighted 339 books mentioned across the episodes from all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls. It sparked a frenzy among fans to tackle the extensive Rory Gilmore Reading List.
This compilation not only includes well-loved classics but also some of the best-selling books of all time.
I was inspired by Rory’s passion for literature, as showcased in her memorable Chilton graduation speech and her relationship with fellow book lover Jess Mariano. So, I launched The Rory Gilmore Book Club on my blog and my Instagram page (@TheRoryGilmoreBookClub) to read these books and re-watch the show.
The challenge expanded as I discovered the initial list omitted titles from the Netflix revival and other subtle references. This prompted me to create the most comprehensive and accurate Rory Gilmore book list available, now exceeding 500 titles.
I’ve written about the challenge in the book But Iโm a Gilmore!, and I’ve been featured on many outlets discussing this challenge, including The Everygirl and Distractify. Over 15,000 followers read as part of our book club on Instagram, making it (to my knowledge) the largest community participating in this challenge.
The Full Rory Gilmore Reading List (in Alphabetical Order)
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Absolute Rage by Robert Tanenbaum
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
- All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
- American Steel by Richard Preston
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- The Andy Warhol Diaries Edited by Pat Hackett
- Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
- Angels in America by Tony Kushner
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Apocalyptics – Cancer and the Big Lie: How Environmental Politics Controls What We Know About Cancer by Edith Efron
- The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
- The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as a History by Norman Mailer
- The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher
- The Art of Fiction by Henry James
- The Art of Living by Epictetus
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Babe by Dick King-Smith
- Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
- Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
- Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten
- Basic Writings of Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Beowulf by Anonymous
- The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Holidays by Martha Stewart Living
- The Bhagavad Gita by Anonymous
- The Big Love by Sarah Dunn
- The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1200 Jews by Peter Duffy
- Billy Budd & Other Tales by Melville
- Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
- A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
- Brick Lane by Monica Ali
- The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
- Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
- Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
- Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
- The Brontes by Juliet Barker
- Call of the Wild by Jack Longdon
- Candide by Voltaire
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
- Carrie by Stephen King
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger
- The Celebrated Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
- Charlotte’s Web by E B White
- The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
- Christine by Stephen King
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
- Cinderella by Brothers Grimm
- Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
- The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
- A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
- Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
- The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
- Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
- Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
- Contact by Carl Sagan
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
- The Crisis by David Harris
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller
- Cujo by Stephen King
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
- Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
- David and Lisa by Dr. Theodore Issac Rubin, M.D.
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
- Deenie by Judy Blume
- Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
- Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
- Diary of Virginia Wolf, Volumes 1,3,4,5 Edited by Anne Olivier Bell
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
- Don Quixote by Cervantes
- Downpour by Nick Holmes
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
- Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
- Elements by Euclid
- Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
- Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
- Eloise at the Plaza by Kay Thompson
- Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
- Essentials of Economics, 3rd. Edition by Bradley R. Schiller
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
- Ethics by Spinoza
- Europe through the Back Door: The Travel Skills Handbook by Rick Steves
- Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
- Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
- Extravagance by Gary Krist
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
- The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
- Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
- Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
- Firewall by Lawrence Walsh
- First Folio by William Shakespeare
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
- Flavor of the Month by Olivia Goldsmith
- Fletch by Gregory McDonald
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
- Fodor’s Selected Hotels of Europe
- The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
- Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
- Frida by Hayden Herrera
- Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
- Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
- George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
- Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
- Gigi by Collette
- A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary
- Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
- The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
- Glengarry Glen Ross by David Marmet
- The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears/Bears Should Share! (Another Point of View) by Alvin Granowsky
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Goodnight Spoon by Keith Richards
- The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
- The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Josรฉ Saramago
- The Graduate by Charles Webb
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Group by Mary McCarthy
- Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
- Guys and Dolls by Damon Runyon
- Haiku, Volume 2: Spring by R.H. Blyth
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Harrold & the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson
- Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
- Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
- Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
- Henry V by William Shakespeare
- Henry VI by William Shakespeare
- He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
- High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
- History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
- The History of Tom Thumb by Anonymous
- Hockey for Dummies by John Davidson and John Steinbreder
- Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
- The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
- Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss
- House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
- The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
- Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
- How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
- How the Light Gets In by M.J. Hyland
- How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
- The Human Factor by Graham Greene
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
- I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
- The Iliad by Homer
- I’m With the Band by Pamela des Barres
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- Indiana by George Sand
- The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
- In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust
- Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
- The Invitation by Oriah
- Ironweed by William J. Kennedy
- It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
- Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
- The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
- Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
- The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony
Bourdain - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D.H. Lawrence
- Larousse Wine by David Cobbold
- The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by
William Manchester - The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume II: Alone, 1932-1940 by William Manchester
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume III: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester
- The Last Word by Graham Greene
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
- The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
- Letters of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand
- Letters of Edith Wharton by R.W.B. Lewis
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
- Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- Lisa and David by Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D.
- Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
- The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- Love Story by Erich Segal
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
- The Manticore by Robertson Davies
- Marathon Man by William Goldman
- Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers and Mary Shepard
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton
- Matisse the Master: A Life of Mattise by Hilary Spurling
- The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
- The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
- Memoirs of General William T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D.
- A Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken
- The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
- The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
- Misery by Stephen King
- Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time by Jim Irvin
- Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
- Molloy by Samuel Beckett
- Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
- A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
- Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
- A Month of Sundays: Searching for The Spirit and My Sister by Julie Mars
- Motley Crue by Seamus Craic
- The Mourning Bride by William Congreve
- A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
- My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
- My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
- My Life as Author and Editor by H.L. Mencken
- My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
- Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe by Myra Waldo
- My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
- My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard
- The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
- Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Nancy Drew and The Witch Tree Symbol by Carolyn Keene
- The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
- Native Son by Richard Wright
- Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon
- Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
- New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
- The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
- Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- No Man is an Island by John Donne
- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
- The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, et al.
- Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
- Novels, 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic
Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell - November of the Heart by LaVyrle Spenser
- The Odyssey by Homer
- Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
- Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Old School by Tobias Wolff
- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
- On the Contrary by Mary McCarthy
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
- Oracle Night by Paul Auster
- Orations by American Orators
- The Orestia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides by W.B. Stanford
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- Othello by William Shakespeare
- Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
- The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
- Out of Africa by Isak Dineson
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- The Oxford Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
- A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
- The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- The Persian Puzzle by Kenneth M. Pollack
- Personal History by Katherine Graham
- Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
- Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and
Gillian McCain - Plutarch’s Lives by Plutarch
- Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson
- Points of View by W. Somerset Maugham
- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
- Pomeranian: An Owner’s Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet by Happeth A. Jones
- The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
- The Portable Nietzsche by Fredrich Nietzsche
- The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Primary Colors by Joe Klein
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman
- Property by Valerie Martin
- The Pump House Gang by Tom Wolfe
- Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution by Stephen Colegrave and Chris Sullivan
- The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate: Two Novels by Nancy Mitford
- Pushkin: A Biography by T.J. Binyon
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
- Quattrocento by James McKean
- A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
- Quiller Bamboo by Adam Hall
- Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
- Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
- The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
- Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
- The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem by Gloria Steinem
- Richard III by William Shakespeare
- R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
- Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
- Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
- Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
- A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
- Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
- The Rough Guide to Europe by Various Authors
- Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
- Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins
- Sanctuary by William Faulkner
- The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
- Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
- Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
- The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
- Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
- The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
- Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
- Sexus by Henry Miller
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Shane by Jack Shaefer
- Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Shining by Stephen King
- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
- S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
- The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell
- The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Sleeping Beauty by The Brothers Grimm
- Small Island by Andrea Levy
- Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
- Snow White and Rose Red by the Brothers Grimm
- Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- Songbook by Nick Hornby
- A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
- The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
- The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
- Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
- Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
- Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
- Stalin: A Biography by Robert Service
- The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
- The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
- The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
- Story of O by Pauline Reage
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
- Stuart Little by E.B. White
- Summer of Fear by T. Jefferson Parker
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
- Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
- Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
- Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
- Tevya The Dairyman and the Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem
- Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
- They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy
- The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
- Thunder by James Grady
- Time and Again by Jack Finney
- Timeline by Michael Crichton
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac
- The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
- Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- Trouble in Our Backyard: Central America and the United States in the Eighties by Martin Diskin
- The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
- Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
- The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky
- Unless by Carol Shields
- U.S. Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis by David Patrick Houghton
- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
- The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
- Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (33 1/3 Book 11) by Joe Harvard
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews by Daniel Sinker
- What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
- What Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell
- When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
- When Everything Changed by Gail Collins
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
- Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory
Maguire - Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil
- The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- Yoga for Dummies by Georg Feuerstein and Larry Payne
- Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantakis
Track Your Progress with the Rory Gilmore Reading List Printable PDF Checklist
FREE BONUS
Get your printable PDF checklist of all 500+ books on the list when you subscribe to The Literary Lifestyle’s free email newsletter community.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge encourages readers to read from the list of 500+ books referenced on the TV show Gilmore Girls. On the show, the main character, Rory, was an avid reader.
The most accurate and comprehensive Rory Gilmore Reading List contains over 500+ books on all seven seasons of the original TV show plus the Netflix revival.
The Rory Gilmore Reading List can be downloaded at The Literary Lifestyle. The books can then be sourced from public libraries, bookstores, and online platforms like Amazon, Kindle, and Apple Books.
Track your progress in the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge with The Literary Lifestyle’s free printable PDF checklist.
Since there are over 500+ books in the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, it should take five to ten years of dedicated reading to complete the challenge.
Rory Gilmore, a character from Gilmore Girls, is known for her extensive reading list. She famously read classics like Anna Karenina, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Swann’s Way. She was also seen reading The Portable Dorothy Parker, and The Year of Magical Thinking, among others.
Conclusion
The Rory Gilmore Reading List encourages readers to read from the list of 500+ books referenced on the TV show Gilmore Girls. On the show, the main character, Rory, was an avid reader.
Have fun reading and re-watching your show as you track your progress with the above checklist. Lastly, remember to engage with our community of thousands of readers taking the challenge @TheRoryGilmoreBookClub on Instagram.
I thought it was 408โฆwhere did the next 100+ come from?
My own personal research and re-watches, in which I found the 408 to be missing books. I’m still finding book references and plan to update it again soon!
You forgot Daisy Miller by Henry James!
I Love rory
Awesome compilation! I’m going to include this on my blog this week.
cant wait!
Nice!
I got this late but immediately fell in love, Rory Gilmore is such a legend! And Jules Buono too, million thanks to your invaluable contribution!
This is a long shot but do you happen to have episode reference of which season/episode a book was mentioned/spotted/adapted from? I love the idea of reading all the books referenced in an episode and then watching the episode after as a reward.
Hi Whitney, This is something that’s in the works. The best way to keep tabs on the project is via my email list (if you aren’t already on it). That’s most likely where I will share it when it’s ready. I’m also going to be sharing more about pairings of the book plus episode on my Instagram page @therorygilmorebookclub over the course of the next year.
Has anyone read
A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing by H.L. Mencken? Rory refers to it after golfing with her grandfather in S1,E3.
I have not. Hope someone can step in and reply if they have read it!
I know it isnโt an author mentioned in relation to Rory, but I feel Luke and the fact he reads Philip K Dick needs a mention. Heโs a very creative author, itโs been a while since I read A Martian Time-Slip, but I recall being both riveted and confused at the same time. Fits in with Lukeโs Trekky thing too. Bless him. Love Lukeโฆ. and all of them.
Added. Thank you!
408 books- looks like I’m gonna have a busy year
That’s what I like to hear!
Has anybody read the book Rory shoves in a bag and is reading at Madeleineโs party? โThe Art of Eatingโ by M.F.K. Fisher. Not on any of the lists Iโve seen.
I haven’t!
This is perfect. I’ve been doing a “Gilmore Girls” rewatch on my feminist film/tv blog and was just thinking that it’s time to re-attempt this challenge.
That’s awesome! By coincidence, I also just posted all the books on the list you can also “watch” and I have an RBG post too in case that interests you.
I just took a deep dive into the list, and it is so fun!! I love that you included the Year in the Life books too because it makes it feel very full circle Gilmore Girls ๐ Happy October, Jules!
Libby
Totally agree and Happy October to you as well!
This!!!!! Omg. Obsessed. I need to see how many Iโve read. Thanks!
YAY!