📖6th Annual Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge 2026 (+ Free PDF)
For the 6th annual year, we're reading one book of your choice per month from Gilmore Girls on a given prompt. Read like a Gilmore with us!
The time has come to release the 2026 Rory Gilmore reading challenge! This is our 6th annual challenge reading the 475+ books on Gilmore Girls, and it’s the 1st on the Substack platform, which has been great in allowing me to share with you in more engaging ways: our new podcast, chats, printables, etc.!
The Backstory
If you’re new around here, I started this challenge in the midst of the pandemic, fall 2020. I wanted both a comfort show to watch and better books to read. I was a book blogger, reading new books that I was influenced to buy, but that disappointed me, and I longed to read classics, both older and newer, that I had missed out on. Gilmore Girls had all of this!
I mentioned it on social media, and I never got so much interest in something, so I started a separate page for our challenge. It’s grown substantially over the years, and my interest in it has only grown stronger. It’s now the primary focus of my work.
While I don’t always love the books I read in the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, I never feel like I wasted my time on them, which is what matters most to me. There’s always something to be gained from this list of highly influential books, including understanding the Gilmores’ fast talk on my rewatches! And it really helps me knock out those classics I’d never get to otherwise. (I’m looking at you, Anna Karenina!)
There’s this vague notion of what makes a well-read reader that can be hard to define, but to me, it’s this list of books on Gilmore Girls. If they are your literary icons, too, then read and rewatch with us this year!
How To Take the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge With Us
First, subscribe.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to our Substack email newsletter community (if you received this post via email, then don’t worry—you’re already subscribed). When you subscribe, you’ll instantly receive a free printable PDF checklist of the books from the show, as well as Instagram story templates to help you track your progress.
Second, upgrade (optional).
If you want exclusive content, like a printable PDF of the books on Gilmore Girls by episode, you can also upgrade your Substack membership to paid. This gives the most active and committed members of our book club some private space to engage with me and each other, and it also helps support the time and costs associated with my work.
Third, pick your monthly read based on our prompts.
Each month, I share a reading prompt with a list of relevant book recommendations from Gilmore Girls. I also choose one book per month to feature in a deep dive post, and I share other related bookish/Gilmore Girls content to inspire and inform you as the month progresses.
Simply choose a book from the list that matches the given prompt and read it on your own. Don’t worry, I’m always here to help.
Fourth, engage with us!
Engage with our community on our two biggest platforms, Substack and Instagram, for virtual book club vibes. Note that I re-share readers’ tagged content to inspire and motivate you, so tag me in your posts!
Announcing: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge Prompts for 2026!
Want to plan ahead? Here are the reading prompts for each month, along with an Instagram story template to track your progress.
January: A kids’ book
February: A book adapted to film
March: A book published in 2000 or later
April: A classic book
May: A book associated with Rory Gilmore
June: A female author
July: A short book
August: A book set in Europe
September: A book associated with Lorelai Gilmore
October: A book from season 2 of Gilmore Girls
November: Nonfiction
December: A random book
Keep in Mind: The easiest books to read are children’s books, short books, modern books, and books adapted to film, so you can watch as you read. The most popular books on the list over the years have consistently been Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.
For hard books, try pairing them with audio and/or online guides.
As mentioned, I’ll write to you every month with a complete list of reading options.
Notes on the Challenge
As always, the prompts are half the same prompts that always work really well (like adaptations) and half new prompts that push us to try something different.
They are also always designed to give you many options and to incorporate a range of easy, medium, and hard books. I also pick topics that are most likely to get people interested in joining our book club. Lastly, I also try to make them seasonally appropriate.
One more thing I want to note is that, while I will write about the prompts monthly to you, I don’t include the names of the months on the Instagram story template, so that you don’t feel “behind” if you join late, finish after a month ends, or want to skip around. While a challenge should, well, challenge you, it also shouldn’t make you feel bad or pressured. The goal is to make you feel as good as if you lived in Stars Hollow, after all!
Friday Night Readers is a virtual community that reads and lives like the Gilmore Girls. Subscribe now, and you’ll instantly receive a printable PDF checklist of the 475+ books on the show—each one personally verified by me for you. Upgrade to get the checklist with episodes, plus exclusive posts and full community access.
Other Ways to Support:
❤️Like, comment, share, or restack
➕Follow: Instagram, Threads, Facebook, GoodReads, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, X, Reddit, LinkedIn
🎙️Listen: Podcast
Disclosure: This email may contain affiliate links through which I earn commissions on purchases made through my links at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Ads, sponsored content, and paid opportunities in this email help contribute to my expenses and time, while keeping content accessible to readers. I appreciate your support.
I have upgraded -- my profile shows paid until Dec 2026. the money has cleared my bank. I have no idea how I get the printables and the disc binder. I have emailed twice. Help.
Loves doing this in 2025. Can see the monthly recommendations. But where can I review the full list for other options? Happy New Year!