📖Rory Gilmore Reading List: Free Printable PDF Checklist of 450+ Verified Books
Nearly two years in the making, my updated Rory Gilmore Reading List of books on Gilmore Girls is here, with 100+ new discoveries you likely won't find elsewhere and a printable PDF checklist.
Hi Friday night readers,
On the heels of the release of my 168-page Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls (by episode) (for paid subscribers), I’ve now also updated my Rory Gilmore Reading List1 (free online for everyone; free printable PDF checklist for email subscribers2). It will make your participation in our Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge this year your best one yet!
Why You Should Trust My List of Books Mentioned on Gilmore Girls
My Rory Gilmore reading list is the most accurate and comprehensive one that I’m aware of—period.
In short, since 2020, I’ve dedicated myself to this project and built a podcast, an Instagram book club with ~19,000 followers, as well as an email book club community of ~19,000 subscribers who join me in taking the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. I’ve also written about it in the book But I’m a Gilmore!, and I’ve been featured on many major outlets discussing this challenge, including The Everygirl and Distractify.
More specifically, back in 2014, BuzzFeed shared a viral post highlighting 339 books purportedly mentioned across the episodes of all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls.
However, when I started our Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge in late 2020, I also wanted to add books that were later mentioned in Netflix’s 2016 reboot, A Year in the Life. So, I started my own list, which has been popular ever since.
Between 2021 and 2023, I continued to find significant fault with the original BuzzFeed list (and, quite frankly, all the other compilations I found out there). Some books on their list have never been identified by anyone—myself included, after multiple tedious rewatches with captions, as well as lots of pausing and researching. And others are a bit of a stretch. For example, where only an author is referenced, the original list assumes a particular title by that author.
I have now discovered over 100 additional books not listed anywhere else, and I can tell you exactly where each book on this list is referenced in Gilmore Girls. THAT’S why you should trust my list. This work is “my lifestyle, my religion,” not a one-off post.
Without further ado, please enjoy! And support my work in releasing factually accurate information to the public for free by liking, sharing, commenting, restacking, or subscribing (free or paid). Your support keeps real journalism like this alive.
My Personally-Verified Rory Gilmore Reading List of 470 Books I Spotted on Gilmore Girls
Please note there are nuances to this guide.3 Please also note that you can click the title to buy the book and/or learn more. For books from the list I’ve read, I link to my full book review, including episodes featuring them, pairings, recommendations, tips, and more.4
👍Means I read it and liked it
❤️Means I read it and loved it
👎Means I read it and didn’t like it
1984 by George Orwell👍
72nd and Rodeo by Roz Avrett
Absolute Rage by Robert Tanenbaum
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain❤️
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll❤️
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Pead
All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Amanda/Miranda by Richard Peck
American Steel by Richard Preston
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
Among the Thugs by Bill Buford
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie👍
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt❤️
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy❤️
Anne Bogart: Viewpoints by Michael Bigelow Dixon
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson
The Apocalyptics by Edith Efron
The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer
The Art Book by Phaidon Press
The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu👍
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
As They Were by M.K. Fisher
Atonement by Ian McEwan👍
The Automated Battlefield by Frank Barnaby
Babe by Dick King-Smith👍
Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx
Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten
Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten
Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten
Basic Writings of Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche
Bauhaus 2000 edited by Jeannine Fiedler and Peter Feierabend
A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath❤️
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
Beowulf by Anonymous/Seamus Healey translation👎
The Big Love by Sarah Dunn
Big Theories Revisited by Dennis M. McInerney
Billy Budd & Other Tales by Herman Melville
Blind Faith by Joe McGinniss
The Bobbsey Twins by Laura Lee Hope
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Breaker by Minette Walters
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx❤️
The Brontes by Juliet Barker
The Brothers Karamazov by Leo Tolstoy
Butterfield 8 by John O’Hara
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Candide by Voltaire👍
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Carrie by Stephen King
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe👍
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger❤️
The Celebrated Jumping Frog by Mark Twain👍
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson👍
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl❤️
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White❤️
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens❤️
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes❤️
Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm👍
Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell👍
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess👎
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
The Complete History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole👎
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Contact by Carl Sagan
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The Crisis by David Harris
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Wang Dulu
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
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller❤️
Deenie by Judy Blume👍
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Devil’s Hole by Bill Branon
Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 1-5
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank❤️
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, et al.
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv❤️
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert👍
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
Elements by Euclid
Ellis Island by Fred Mustard Stewart
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
Eloise at the Plaza by Kay Thompson❤️
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma Who Saved My Life by Wilton Barnhardt
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol❤️
An Enquiry on the Principles of Morals by David Hume
“Essay on Criticism” by Alexander Pope
Ethics by Baruch Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door: The Travel Skills Handbook by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
“Eve of Waterloo” by Lord Byron👍
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe
Fast Times at Ridgemont High by Cameron Crowe
Fatal Terrain by Dale Brown
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Firestarter by Stephen King
Firewall by Lawrence Walsh
First Folio by William Shakespeare
Flavor of the Month by Olivia Goldsmith
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Footprint Thailand by Andrew Spooner
Fortune’s Favorites by Colleen McCullough
Forty Days by Bob Simon
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Fourth Estate by Jeffrey Archer
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley❤️
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger👍
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers👎
Frida by Hayden Herrera
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
The Ghost of Mrs. Muir by Josephine Leslie
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Gigi by Collette
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Girls Only by Alex Witchel
A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams❤️
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robert Southey👍
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Goodnight Spoon by Keith Richards
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José 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
Haiku, Volume 2: Spring by R.H. Blyth
Haiti: State Against Nation by Michel-Roph Trouillot
Hamlet by William Shakespeare❤️
Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm👍
Happy Days, Newspaper Days, Newspaper Days, Heathen Days by H.L. Mencken
Harold & 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❤️
Harvey by Mary Chase
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Heart of Sicily by Anna Lanza
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, Part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
Henry VI by William Shakespeare
Henry VIII 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👍
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien👎
Hockey for Dummies by John Davidson and John Steinbreder
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss❤️
Hotels, Restaurants, and Inns of Great Britain and Ireland 1986 by Egon Ronay
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende👍
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss❤️
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg👍
How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Iacocca by Lee Iacocca
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👍
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust
Intentions by Oscar Wilde
Into What Far Harbor? by Allen Drury
The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron
It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan👍
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare👍
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Larousse Gastronomique by Librairie Larousse
Larousse Wine by David Cobbold
Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by
William ManchesterThe 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
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo❤️
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.
Literature of the Western World, Vol. 2: Neoclassicism Through the Modern Period by James Hurt
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 Red Riding Hood by the Brothers Grimm👍
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
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 Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
Love For Love by William Congreve
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold❤️
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Love Without Fear by Eustace Chesser
Macbeth by William Shakespeare❤️
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans❤️
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers👍
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton
Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D.❤️
A Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare👍
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka❤️
Midnight Express by Billy Hayes
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time by Jim Irvin
Molloy by Samuel Beckett
Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
The Mourning Bride by William Congreve
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway❤️
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf👍
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4 by Seymour M. Hersh
My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Nancy Drew and The Witch Tree Symbol by Carolyn Keene👍
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
Native Heart by Gabriel Horn
Native Son by Richard Wright
Nature’s Metropolis by William Cronon
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich👍
No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
No Man is an Island by John Donne
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen❤️
Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. E.: The Victorian Age
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
November of the Heart by LaVyrle Spencer
The Odd Couple by Neil Simon
The Odyssey by Homer❤️
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck❤️
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Contrary by Mary McCarthy
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez👎
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Open Net by George Plimpton
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
Orations by American Orators
Othello by William Shakespeare👍
Out of Africa by Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton👍
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works by William Shakespeare
Paper Lion by George Plimpton
Paradise Lost by John Milton
“Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow❤️
Pentagon by Allen Drury
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
The Persian Puzzle by Kenneth M. Pollack
Personal History by Katherine Graham
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Physics of Consciousness by Evan Harris Walker
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and
Gillian McCainPoints of View by W. Somerset Maugham
Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith
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 Friedrich Nietzsche
Pregnancy Sucks by Joanne Kimes
The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen❤️
Primary Colors by Anonymous/Joe Klein
P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
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 by T.J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw👍
Quiller Bamboo by Adam Hall
Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm❤️
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe❤️
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier❤️
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Return to the Chateau by Pauline Reage
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
Richard III by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare❤️
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf👍
Rotten by John Lydon
The Rough Guide to Europe by Various Authors
R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert May❤️
Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Saving the Queen by William Frank Buckley, Jr.
The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Scarface by Armitage Trail
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne👍
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret History by Donna Tartt❤️
The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Sexus by Henry Miller
Shadow Box by George Plimpton
Shaft by Ernest Tidyman
Shane by Jack Shaefer👎
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr
The Shining by Stephen King👍
The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
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👍
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway👍
Snow White by the Brothers Grimm
Snow White and Rose Red by the Brothers Grimm
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Barrington Moore
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury👍
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
“Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare❤️
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner👍
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Stalin by Robert Service
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Story of O by Pauline Reage
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams👍
Stuart Little by E.B. White👎
Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway👍
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Taken Hostage by David Farber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe❤️
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Terminal by Robin Cook
Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
This is America My Country by Donald H. Sheehan
Thunder by James Grady
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee❤️
“To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785” by Robert Burns
The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Trouble in Our Backyard by Martin Diskin
True Grit by Charles Portis
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom👍
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Unfinished Business by John Houseman
Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
Un Petit Lapin by Matias
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
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Watercolors for the Birds of America by John James Audubon
We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews by Daniel Sinker
What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff
What Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson👍
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee👍
Who’s Who and What’s What in Shakespeare by Evangeline M. O’Connor
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Wild by Cheryl Strayed👍
Wild Animus by Rich Shapero
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
“The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum👍
The World of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Written in Blood by Robert Debs Heinl and Nancy Gordon Heinl
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë👍
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion👍
Yentl the Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis
Yoga for Dummies by Georg Feuerstein and Larry Payne
Your Pregnancy Week by Week by Glade B. Curtis
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Enjoy Reading Like a Gilmore With Your Printable PDFs!
There are many reasons we read like a Gilmore—some more escapist, some more educational. So, now that you know the list of books, how should you start reading them?
First, I recommend you save this post and/or subscribe to receive your free printable PDF checklist to track your reading.
As a free email subscriber, you’ll receive an array of multimedia content from posts to polls, podcasts, and live videos all about these iconic books to inspire your own reading list. I make reading these important books fun and accessible in a virtual book club setting that feels like Stars Hollow.
Second, if you choose to upgrade to a paid subscriber, you’ll receive extras like exclusive posts and printables, including the Unofficial Guide to Books on Gilmore Girls and a Reading Journal. This helps you seamlessly pair your reading with your rewatches and enjoy more cozy analog living.
P.S. - This list of personally verified books on Gilmore Girls took years to compile and provides far more accurate and comprehensive information on the internet, free to you. If you liked it, please take a quick moment to support my work with a like, comment, share, or restack. Every ounce of your support for real journalism matters and helps me continue providing you with such high-quality resources.
This list was first published on the official Friday Night Readers website.
New subscribers can access it in their welcome email. I also emailed it again to current subscribers on 1/27/26 with the subject “My birthday, your gifts.”
You’ll find nuanced references in this guide, such as instances where a title appears on the show but it’s unclear whether the reference is to the book or the movie adaptation; I assume the book.
I also made some tough decisions about what to leave out. For example, I list background books only when they appear to belong to a character (such as on Rory’s shelf rather than on a bookstore shelf).
I mention authors referenced only when they are primarily known for their writing —not simply public figures who also wrote a book. I only mention literary posters once, not in every episode, which would feel excessive. I include plays, but not musical adaptations.
Lastly, I chose not to list religious texts, such as the Bible, textbooks, or other reference works.
These book reviews are a work in progress.