Gilmore Girls Reading List: Books Mentioned on the TV Show (Part 1 of 4)

Introduction to Gilmore Girls Reading List

Are you a fan of Gilmore Girls? If so, you already know that the show isn’t just about mother-daughter bonding, fast-talking conversations, and small-town charm. It’s also a celebration of books and lifelong learning.

Years ago, while spending time with family in New York, my niece often watched reruns of Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City. While I never quite connected with Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls captured my heart. I became an avid viewer, eagerly following Lorelai and Rory’s lives from week to week. Although I’m not a single mother, I felt a strong connection to Lorelai—her quick wit, independence, and love of books made us feel like kindred spirits.

Today, I no longer own a television, but I still remember the series fondly. A few years ago, I came across a blog post titled “I Challenge You to Read 339 Books + A Free Checklist”, and it brought Gilmore Girls right back into my mind.

Read Your Way Through Stars Hollow—One Book at a Time

The challenge, originally shared by blogger Francine Clouden, invites readers to tackle the 339 books mentioned throughout the seven seasons of Gilmore Girls. In her post, Clouden mentions that she’s read 86 of the titles so far—39 more than I had read at the time.

I loved that she compiled the full list in one place, making it easy to access. Several of those books had already made it onto my reading list for The Invisible Mentor 2015 Reading Challenge, which made this discovery feel serendipitous.

One note, though: if you're over 40, you may find the font size on the original list hard to read. That’s why I’m resharing the list here in a more reader-friendly format. Especially for fellow lifelong learners who want to read more broadly and deeply.

Why the Gilmore Girls Reading List Still Matters Today

What I love most about this list is its diversity. It spans genres, cultures, eras, and voices. If you commit to reading even a portion of these books, you’ll be building a rich, self-directed education—one that challenges your thinking, broadens your perspective, and feeds your curiosity.

Want to take it further? Don’t just read—take notes, reflect, and review how the books relate to each other. That’s how you move from passive reading to active learning. It’s also how you get the most out of every page.

Whether you're joining a personal reading challenge or simply want to immerse yourself in the world that shaped Rory Gilmore’s mind, this list is a fantastic place to start.

Have you read?

Taking Better Notes – Learning to Abbreviate Words
Tips on Note-taking: The Art of Writing While Listening
To Remember More of What You Read, Take Notes by Hand 

The First 70 Books from the Gilmore Girls Reading List

Below is a more accessible version of the first 70 titles from the list. See which ones you’ve already read—and which ones you'd like to add to your personal reading journey.

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

6. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

9. The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan

10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James

11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

13. Atonement by Ian McEwan

14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

16. Babe: The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith

17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi

18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

21. Beloved by Toni Morrison

22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

23. Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation

24. The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy

25. Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

26. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy

27. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

28. Brick Lane by Monica Ali

29. Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner

30. Candide by Voltaire

31. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

32. Carrie by Stephen King

33. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

34. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

35. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

36. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman

37. Christine by Stephen King

38. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

39. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

40. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

41. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

42. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

43. Dawn Powell: Novels 1930–1942

44. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

45. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

46. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

48. Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac

49. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

50. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

51. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

52. Cujo by Stephen King

53. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

54. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

55. Lisa and David by Theodore Isaac Rubin

56. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

57. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

58. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

59. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

60. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

61. Deenie by Judy Blume

62. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

63. The Dirt by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, and Nikki Sixx

64. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

65. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

66. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

67. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry

68. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

69. Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

70. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Vol. 1 & 2)

Final Thoughts on Gilmore Girls Big List of Books to Read

How many of these books have you already read? How many do you want to explore next? Whether you're revisiting old favorites or discovering new classics, this list is a powerful way to build your own personal library—and your intellectual legacy.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, where I’ll continue sharing more titles from the iconic Gilmore Girls reading list.

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