Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival

by | Aug 5, 2019 | Books | 13 comments

Want to read every single book every mentioned on Gilmore Girls? I’ve got you covered! Read on for all 408 titles from the Pilot episode all the way through to the revival, including many that other lists missed!

Want to read every single book every mentioned on Gilmore Girls? I've got you covered! Read on for all 408 titles from the Pilot episode all the way through to the revival, including many that other lists missed!

The Rory Gilmore reading challenge is probably one of the most popular “books to read in your lifetime” challenges out there, so I know this isn’t the most unique list. However, after digging around and spending hours cross-checking sources, I found that most list completely leave off the revival and miss a good chunk of pretty important books altogether!

I also found that some didn’t really have the right books (It’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, not just Alice in Wonderland, for example) or listed books that don’t even exist (see the note at the end for which one).

I can’t promise that it’s a perfect list but I spent a lot of time trying to make it as complete and accurate as possible.

Love “what to read” book lists like this? Check out my Around the World in 80 Books post!

Updated & Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: Every Book from the Pilot Through the Revival

Since not every book was mentioned or read by Rory, it would be far more accurate to call it the Gilmore Girls reading challenge versus the Rory Gilmore challenge. Semantics, I know, but I’m a fairly literal person.

Below are all 408 books that are obviously referenced or seen within the show’s 8 seasons (including the revival). By that, I mean I didn’t go through with a magnifying glass and try to read the titles to every book on every shelf & surface throughout the series. 😀

Just for fun, I linked to all of the books I’ve read so far. Some of them I read a very long time ago and only in school. I don’t want you to think I’m more pretentious than I actually am. 😀

FYI, the links are affiliate links, so if you make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra charge to you.

Want to print it out? Click here for the printer-friendly PDF version!

All 408 Books Obviously Referenced on Gilmore Girls

  1. 1984Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by George Orwell
  2. Adventures of Huckleberry FinnComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Mark Twain
  3. Adventures of Tom SawyerComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Mark Twain
  4. Alice’s Adventures in WonderlandComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the RevivalComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Lewis Carroll
  5.  All the President’s MenComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
  6.  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Michael Chabon
  7. An American TragedyComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Theodore Dreiser
  8. And Then There Were NoneComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Agatha Christie
  9. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
  10. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  11. The Diary of a Young GirlComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Anne Frank
  12. The Archidamian WarComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Donald Kagan
  13. The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as a History by Norman Mailer
  14. The Art of Fiction by Henry James
  15. The Art of Living by Epictetus
  16. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  17. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  18. Atonement by Ian McEwan
  19. Autobiography of a FaceComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Lucy Grealy
  20. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
  21. Babe by Dick King-Smith
  22. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American WomenComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Susan Faludi
  23. Balzac and the Little Chinese SeamstressComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Dai Sijie
  24. Bambi: A Life in the WoodsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Felix Salten (incorrectly appears on some lists as “Walt Disney’s Bambi”)
  25. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
  26. The Bell JarComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Sylvia Plath
  27. Beloved by Toni Morrison
  28. Beowulf by Who The Heck Knows 
  29. The Bhagava GitaComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival (I only read bits and pieces of it)
  30. 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
  31. Bitch: In Praise of Difficult WomenComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Elizabeth Wurtzel
  32. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
  33. Brave New WorldComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Aldous Huxley
  34. Brick LaneComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Monica Ali
  35. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
  36. Candide by Voltaire
  37. The Canterbury TalesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Chaucer (for school & in old English at that!)
  38. CarrieComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Stephen King
  39. Catch-22Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Joseph Heller
  40. The Catcher in the RyeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by J D Salinger
  41. Charlotte’s WebComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by E B White
  42. The Children’s HourComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Lillian Hellman
  43. Cinderella by Brothers Grimm
  44. Christine by Stephen King
  45. A Christmas CarolComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Charles Dickens
  46. A Clockwork OrangeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Anthony Burgess
  47. The Code of the WoostersComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by PG Wodehouse
  48. The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
  49. A Comedy of ErrorsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  50. Compact Oxford English Dictionary
  51. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
  52. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
  53. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
  54. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
  55. A Confederacy of DuncesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by John Kennedy Toole
  56. Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
  57. Contact by Carl Sagan
  58. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  59. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
  60. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  61. The Crimson Petal and the WhiteComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Michel Faber
  62. The CrucibleComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Arthur Miller
  63. Cujo by Stephen King
  64. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Mark Haddon
  65. Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
  66. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
  67. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  68. The Da Vinci CodeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Dan Brown
  69. Dead SoulsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Nikolai Gogol
  70. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  71. Death of a SalesmanComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Arthur Miller
  72. DeenieComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Judy Blume
  73. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed AmericaComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Erik Larson
  74. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
  75. The Divine ComedyComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Dante Alighieri
  76. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
  77. Don Quixote by Cervantes
  78. DraculaComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Bram Stoker
  79. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
  80. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & PoemsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Edgar Allan Poe
  81. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
  82. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid TestComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Tom Wolfe
  83. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
  84. Eloise at the Plaza by Kay Thompson
  85. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
  86. EmmaComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jane Austen
  87. Empire FallsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Richard Russo
  88. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J Sobol
  89. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
  90. Ethics by SpinozaComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival
  91. Europe through the Back DoorComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival: The Travel Skills Handbook by Rick Steves
  92. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
  93. Everything Is IlluminatedComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jonathan Safran Foer
  94. The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
  95. Extravagance by Gary Krist
  96. Fahrenheit 451Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Ray Bradbury
  97. Fahrenheit 9/11Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Michael Moore
  98. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
  99. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the WorldComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Greg Critser
  100. Fear and Loathing in Las VegasComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Hunter S Thompson
  101. The Fellowship of the RingComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by J R R Tolkien
  102. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
  103. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
  104. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
  105. Fletch by Gregory McDonald
  106. Flowers for AlgernonComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Daniel Keyes
  107. Fodor’s Selected Hotels of Europe
  108. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
  109. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
  110. FrankensteinComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Mary Shelley
  111. Franny and Zooey by J D Salinger
  112. Freaky FridayComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Mary Rodgers
  113. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
  114. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
  115. George W Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd PresidentComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jacob Weisberg
  116. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
  117. A Girl from Yamhill by a Beverly Cleary
  118. Girl, InterruptedComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Susanna Kaysen
  119. The Gnostic GospelsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Elaine Pagels
  120. The Godfather: Book  by Mario Puzo
  121. The God of Small ThingsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Arundhati Roy
  122. Goldilocks and the Three BearsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Alvin Granowsky
  123. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  124. Goodnight Spoon by Keith Richards
  125. The Good Soldier Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revivalby Ford Maddox Ford
  126. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago
  127. The Graduate by Charles Webb
  128. The Grapes of WrathComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by John Steinbeck
  129. The Great GatsbyComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by F Scott Fitzgerald
  130. Great ExpectationsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Charles Dickens
  131. The GroupComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Mary McCarthy
  132. Haiku, Volume 2: Spring by R.H. Blyth
  133. HamletComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  134. Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by J K Rowling
  135. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s StoneComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by J K Rowling
  136. He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
  137. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
  138. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  139. Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson
  140. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent BugliosiComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival and Curt Gentry
  141. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
  142. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
  143. Henry V by William Shakespeare
  144. Henry VI by William Shakespeare
  145. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  146. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
  147. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
  148. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
  149. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
  150. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
  151. Horton Hears a Who!Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Dr. Seuss
  152. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
  153. How the Grinch Stole ChristmasComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Dr Seuss
  154. How the Light Gets In by M J Hyland
  155. Howl and Other Poem by Allen GinsbergComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival
  156. The Hunchback of Notre DameComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Victor Hugo
  157. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
  158. The Iliad by Homer
  159. I’m With the Band by Pamela des Barres
  160. In Cold BloodComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Truman Capote
  161. Indiana by George Sand
  162. The InfernoComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Dante Alighieri (which is actually part of The Divine Comedy so shouldn’t be counted, but I’ll let it slide)
  163. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee
  164. Ironweed by William J Kennedy
  165. It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton
  166. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  167. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
  168. Julius CaesarComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  169. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
  170. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
  171. Jurassic ParkComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Michael Crichton
  172. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
  173. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
  174. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
  175. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  176. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D H Lawrence
  177. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
  178. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by William Manchester
  179. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 by William Manchester
  180. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester
  181. Leaves of GrassComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Walt Whitman
  182. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
  183. Less Than ZeroComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Bret Easton Ellis
  184. Letters of Ayn Rand edited by Michael S. Berliner
  185. Letters of Edith Wharton by R.W.B. Lewis (not mentioned specifically by name, but alluded to by Lorelai in the revival).
  186. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
  187. The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus
  188. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
  189. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
  190. Life of PiComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Yann Martel
  191. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
  192. The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by CS Lewis
  193. Lisa and David by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin MD
  194. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
  195. Little House in the Big WoodsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  196. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
  197. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
  198. Little WomenComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Louisa May Alcott
  199. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
  200. Lord of the FliesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Golding
  201. The Lord of the RingsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by J.R.R. Tolkien
  202. The Lottery: And Other StoriesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Shirley Jackson
  203. The Lovely BonesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Alice Sebold
  204. The Love Story by Erich Segal
  205. MacbethComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  206. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
  207. The Manticore by Robertson Davies
  208. Marathon Man by William Goldman
  209. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  210. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
  211. Memoirs of General William T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
  212. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
  213. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
  214. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from VenusComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by John Gray, Ph.D.
  215. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken
  216. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
  217. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
  218. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
  219. A Midsummer Night’s DreamComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  220. The Miracle WorkerComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Gibson
  221. Misery by Stephen King
  222. Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt
  223. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  224. The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time by Jim Irvin
  225. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
  226. Molloy by Samuel Beckett
  227. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
  228. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
  229. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
  230. Motley Crue by Seamus Craic
  231. The Mourning Bride by William Congreve
  232. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
  233. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
  234. Mutiny on the BountyComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
  235. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M Hersh
  236. My Life as Author and Editor by H.L. Mencken
  237. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
  238. Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe,  by Myra Waldo
  239. My Sister’s KeeperComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jodi Picoult
  240. My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard
  241. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
  242. Naked LunchComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William S. Burroughs
  243. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
  244. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
  245. Nancy Drew and The Witch Tree Symbol by Carolyn Keene
  246. The Nanny DiariesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Emma McLaughlin
  247. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
  248. New Poems of Emily DickinsonComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Emily Dickinson
  249. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
  250. Nickel and DimedComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival: On (Not) Getting By in America  by Barbara Ehrenreich
  251. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  252. Night by Elie Wiesel
  253. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  254. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E Cain, Laurie A Finke, Barbara E Johnson, John P McGowan
  255. Novels, 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
  256. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
  257. Oedipus Rex by Sophicles
  258. Of Mice and MenComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by John Steinbeck
  259. Old School by Tobias Wolff
  260. Oliver TwistComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Charles Dickens
  261. On the RoadComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jack Kerouac
  262. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  263. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Ken Kesey
  264. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  265. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
  266. Oracle Night by Paul Auster
  267. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  268. Othello by Shakespeare
  269. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
  270. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
  271. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
  272. The OutsidersComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by S.E. Hinton
  273. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
  274. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
  275. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  276. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
  277. The Picture of Dorian GrayComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Oscar Wilde
  278. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
  279. PinocchioComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Carlo Collodi
  280. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of PunkComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
  281. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
  282. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
  283. The Portable NietzcheComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Fredrich Nietzche (not the whole thing, though)
  284. The Price of Loyalty: George W Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
  285. Pride and PrejudiceComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jane Austen
  286. Primary Colors by Joe Klein
  287. Property by Valerie Martin
  288. The Pump House Gang by Tom Wolfe
  289. The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
  290. Pushkin: A Biography by T J Binyon
  291. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
  292. Quattrocento by James Mckean
  293. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
  294. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
  295. RapunzelComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Grimm Brothers (I read the entire Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales, actuallyComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival)
  296. The Raven Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revivalby Edgar Allan Poe
  297. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
  298. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
  299. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  300. Rebecca of Sunnybrook FarmComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Kate Douglas Wiggin
  301. The Red Badge of CourageComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Stephen Crane
  302. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
  303. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone MadComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Virginia Holman (I went through a True Crime phase and am fascinated by the Patty Hearst story)
  304. The Return of the King Complete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revivalby J R R Tolkien
  305. Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem by Gloria Steinem
  306. Richard III by William Shakespeare
  307. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
  308. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
  309. Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
  310. Romeo and JulietComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  311. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
  312. A Room with a View by E M Forster
  313. Rosemary’s BabyComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Ira Levin
  314. The Rough Guide to Europe by Various Authors
  315. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
  316. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
  317. The Satanic Verses by  Salman Rushdie
  318. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
  319. Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
  320. The Scarecrow of OzComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Frank L Baum
  321. The Scarlet LetterComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  322. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
  323. The Second SexComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Simone de Beauvoir
  324. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  325. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
  326. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
  327. Sense and SensibilityComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jane Austen
  328. A Separate PeaceComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by John Knowles
  329. Sexus by Henry Miller
  330. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  331. Shane by Jack Shaefer
  332. The ShiningComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Stephen King
  333. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
  334. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
  335. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  336. Small Island by Andrea Levy
  337. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
  338. Snow White and Rose RedComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Grimm Brothers
  339. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
  340. Something Wicked This Way ComesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Ray Bradbury
  341. Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  342. A Song of Ice and Fire George R.R. Martin
  343. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
  344. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
  345. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
  346. Songbook by Nick Hornby
  347. The SonnetsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by William Shakespeare
  348. Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  349. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
  350. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
  351. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
  352. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
  353. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
  354. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
  355. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr HydeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Robert Louis Stevenson
  356. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
  357. Stuart LittleComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by E B White
  358. Summer of Fear by T. Jefferson Parker
  359. The Sun Also RisesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Ernest Hemingway
  360. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
  361. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
  362. SybilComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Flora Rheta Schreiber
  363. A Tale of Two CitiesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Charles Dickens
  364. The Tell-Tale HeartComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Edgar Allan Poe
  365. Tender Is The Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
  366. Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
  367. Tevya The Dairyman and the Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem
  368. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy (They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?)
  369. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
  370. Time and Again by Jack Finney
  371. The Time Traveler’s WifeComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Audrey Niffenegger
  372. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
  373. To Kill a MockingbirdComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Harper Lee
  374. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
  375. TrainspottingComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Irvine Welsh
  376. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty SmithComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival
  377. The Trial by Franz Kafka
  378. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt SistersComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Elisabeth Robinson
  379. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
  380. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  381. Ulysses by James Joyce
  382. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia PlathComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival – by Sylvia Plath
  383. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  384. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  385. Unless by Carol Shields
  386. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
  387. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
  388. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
  389. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (33 1/3 Book 11) by Joe Harvard
  390. The Virgin SuicidesComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Jeffrey Eugenides
  391. Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac
  392. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
  393. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
  394. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  395. We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet: The Collected InterviewsComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Daniel Sinker
  396. What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
  397. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
  398. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
  399. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
  400. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
  401. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
  402. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
  403. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
  404. The Wonderful Wizard of OzComplete Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge: All 408 Books from the Pilot Through the Revival by Frank L Baum
  405. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  406. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
  407. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  408. Yoga for Dummies by Georg Feuerstein and Larry Payne

FYI, there’s a book that appears on every list: The Gospel According to Judy Bloom This is NOT an actual Judy Bloom book. April’s mom, Anna, is referring to Deenie. Here is the gist of the lines from the show that refer to it (it’s not the exact conversation).

LUKE: I saw her pictures. The one in the lab, and the one with the Christmas tree, and you never told me she wore a back brace! Why was she wearing a back brace?
ANNA: Oh, she had just read ‘Deenie’. It was a phase.
LUKE: What the heck is ‘Deenie’?
ANNA: The gospel according to Judy Blume.

So now you can stop searching for that one!

Credit where credit is due

While I’ve watched Gilmore Girls from start to finish at least 8 times, I never would have had the patience to pause and note down every single book mentioned, read, or shown on my own. I used a lot of other resources to fill in the gaps, including:

  • Gilmored (who actually clarified which “several Winston Churchill biographies” were mentioned and found some other books that a lot of lists totally miss)
  • The original BuzzFeed article that started it all
  • Gilmore Girls Fandom (which I used to cross-check against other lists and fill this one out more thoroughly)

So, how many of the books on the complete Gilmore Girls reading list have you read?

13 Comments

  1. Kate on March 6, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    Thank you for the pdf!!!

    Reply
  2. Shari B on July 3, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Thank you so much for all of your hard work compiling this list! And making it availability as a pdf is GREATLY appreciated. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Shari B on July 3, 2020 at 12:11 am

    Thank you so much for all of your hard work compiling this list! And making it available as a pdf is GREATLY appreciated. 🙂

    Reply
    • Nicole Etolen on July 3, 2020 at 12:52 pm

      Thank you!! I’m glad you like it! 😀

      Reply
    • Shaima on June 7, 2022 at 7:29 am

      This was helpful. Thank you.

      Reply
  4. Meggie on August 25, 2020 at 7:49 pm

    love to read books like Rory does

    Reply
  5. Naseem on October 28, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    I found heaven in the shape of a PDF!!! Pleased may you be for the rest of your life! -sending you endless love-

    Reply
  6. Bernardina on February 8, 2021 at 9:51 am

    My Thank you as well for the work put into creating this list and sharing the PDF! Much appreciated!!

    Reply
  7. Lana on January 10, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    I hope both sides of your pillow are cold at night and that your charger works at all angles. Thank you so much for this.

    Reply
  8. Kristine on April 7, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    Would love to know which books are from the original seasons and which are from the revival

    Reply
  9. Sabrina k on April 25, 2022 at 11:50 pm

    16

    Reply
  10. Emilia on April 17, 2023 at 12:45 am

    Super

    Reply
  11. Dana on August 25, 2023 at 2:21 am

    Thank you so much for the pdf file

    Reply

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