2024 Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge for Gilmore Girls Fans

How the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge Works

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge is meant to be easy, fun, and totally customizable.

2024 Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge Monthly Prompts

January: A Kids’ Book

I always like to start the year off with an easy prompt so readers can get a quick win and/or catch up quickly if they find the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge later in the year and want to join.

There are tons of children’s books referenced on Gilmore Girls. Here are ten I personally enjoyed.

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Eloise at the Plaza by Kay Thompson
• Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
• Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers and Mary Shepard
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

February: A Book Adapted to Film

February makes for a great month to read books adapted to film because we are often stuck indoors and can both read AND watch. Additionally, many of these film adaptations correspond to children’s books, so you can easily read two short books to start the 2024 Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge.

There are also tons of book-to-film adaptions referenced on Gilmore Girls. Here are ten I personally enjoyed.

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
• The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Love Story by Erich Segal
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (the movie My Fair Lady)
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed

March: A Book by a Female Author

Since women are the focus of Gilmore Girls, let’s read a book by a female author to celebrate Women’s History Month. Here are ten important books by prolific women that I personally enjoyed.

• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

April: A Classic Book

Rory Gilmore is a lover of great literature, so it’s no surprise there were so many classic books referenced on Gilmore Girls.  A few months into the 2024 Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge now, I consider this to be the first really challenging prompt.

However, I don’t want it to be TOO challenging for you, so below are ten classics I personally enjoyed and think are very readable.

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

May: A Popular Book

This prompt was a reader request, and I think it’s a great one. Part of what inspired me to take the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge myself was to read all the popular books I had missed out on when the show aired and I was busy with schoolwork. I want to understand all the references!

Here are ten books popular generally AND with members of our book club that I have personally enjoyed.

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
• The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Shining by Stephen King

June: A Book Rory Gilmore Read

This reading challenge is all about Rory, yet we’ve never before dedicated an entire prompt to her, so now is truly the time to do so. This is especially true in June when graduations are abundant, as it’s reminiscent of the books Rory mentioned in her graduation speech. Below are these and a few more Rory has famously read herself.

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty 
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time (Vol. I) by Marcel Proust
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

July: A Short Book

Since it’s Summer, let’s relax and read something short and sweet. There are so many short books (under 250 pages) that were referenced on Gilmore Girls, including lots of plays and children’s books.  Here are ten that I personally enjoyed.

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• Candide by Voltaire
• Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
• Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

August: A Book From 2000-2007

As we prepare to rewatch Gilmore Girls this Fall, let’s get ready by reading something that was published contemporaneously with its original air dates. Here are ten popular books published in that timeframe that show how hip to their times the Gilmore Girls are.

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony
  Bourdain
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

September: A Book Jess Mariano Read

Back in June, we read a book Rory Gilmore read. Now, let’s read a book Jess Mariano read. With Jess being her most bookish suitor, it only makes sense… whether or not you’re Team Jess! Here are ten popular books Jess read or referenced on Gilmore Girls.

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
• High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
• Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

October: Shakespeare

I consider this prompt to offer a bit of a challenge for you this month. It’s also the first time we’ve dedicated an entire prompt to one author. There’s no better one here than Shakespeare, as his works are featured more than any other author on Gilmore Girls.

My hope is that you are willing to take on this challenge. Shakespeare can be difficult, but it can be much easier to understand with study guides and modern translations. This strategy has made his some of my favorite works of all time.

Here are ten Shakespearean recommendations for you.

• A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
• Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
• The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare

November: A Non-Fiction Book

Since November is widely considered to be themed “Non-Fiction November” in the book world, this is a great time to focus on non-fiction in the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. Here are ten options I personally enjoyed.

• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

December: A Book on Your To Be Read (TBR) List

For the last month of this year’s Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, let’s close out the year by reading something that’s STILL on your TBR list, so you really feel accomplished when you complete it. 

Of course, this is another very personal challenge, but below are ten of my personal favorite books referenced on Gilmore Girls so you can end the year strong.

• Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
• Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Instagram Story Templates

To track and share your progress with the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge this year, save the below templates, then share them to Instagram with text, GIFs, and book covers.

Conclusion

The 2024 Rory Gilmore Challenge blends the tv show Gilmore Girls with the books referenced on it. Taking the challenge is free, easy, and fun. To get started, just follow The Rory Gilmore Book Club on Instagram and read a book of your choice from the show that matches our monthly prompts.

Before you go, be sure to check out the full Rory Gilmore book list.