Rory Gilmore reading list books list is perfect for anyone who loves all things Gilmore Girls! This Rory Gilmore reading list is a definitive reading list of all the books, poems, authors, and more that were referenced in the show, as well as the revival, A Year in the Life. This comprehensive reading list of Rory Gilmore’s books has something for everyone. Find all of the genres from contemporaries to mysteries and fantasies, and more all on this Rory Gilmore reading list of books.

Last Updated: February 12, 2024

Rory Gilmore Reading List

Seasons 1-7 (Rory Gilmore Reading List)

0-100

1. 1984 by George Orwell

A

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. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

8.  Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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

B

16. Babe 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. The Bhagavad Gita

24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews 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.  Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner

C

30. Candide by Voltaire

31. The Canterbury Tales by 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 by Eudora Welty

42. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

43. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

44. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

45. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

46. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

47. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac

48. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

49. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

50. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

51. Cujo by Stephen King

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

D

53. Daisy Miller by Henry James

54. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

55. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D

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: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

63. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx

64. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

65. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

66. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv

67. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

E

68. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

69. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook

70. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

71. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn

72. Eloise by Kay Thompson

73. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger

74. Emma by Jane Austen

75. Empire Falls by Richard Russo

76. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol

77. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

78. Ethics by Benedict de Spinoza

79. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

80. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

81. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

82. Extravagance by Gary Krist

F

83. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

84. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore

85. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan

86. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser

87. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

88. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

89. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein

90. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

91. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce

92. Fletch by Gregory McDonald

93. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

94. Fodor’s Selected Hotels of Europe by Eugene Fodor

95. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

96. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

97. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

98. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

99. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

G

100. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

101. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

102. George W. Bushisms: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg

103. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner

104. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

105. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

106. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo

107. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

108. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky

109. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

110. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

111. (Keith Richards’) GOodnight Spoon by Rob Sheffield

112. The Graduate by Charles Webb

113. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

114. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

115. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

116. The Group by Mary McCarthy

H

117. Hamlet by William Shakespeare

118. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

120. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

121. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

122. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

123. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare

124. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare

125. Henry V by William Shakespeare

126. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

127. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

128. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

129. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton

130. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

131. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

132. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

133. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

134. How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland

135. Howl by Allen Ginsberg

136. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

I

137. The Iliad by Homer

138. I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie by Pamela des Barres

139. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

140. Inferno by Dante Alighieri

141. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

142. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy

143. It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton

J

144. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

145. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

146. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

147. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain

148. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

149. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito

K

150. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander

151. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

152. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

L

153. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

154. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal

155. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by William Manchester

156. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume II: Alone, 1932-1940 by William Manchester

157. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume III: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester

158. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

159. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

160. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

161. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

162. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

163. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

164. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

165. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway

166. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen

167. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

168. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

169. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

170. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

171. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

172. Love Story by Erich Segal

M

173. Macbeth by William Shakespeare

174. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

175. The Manticore (Deptford Trilogy) by Robertson Davies

176. Marathon Man by William Goldman

177. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

178. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir

179. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman

180. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

181. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer

182. A Mencken Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken

183. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

184. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

185. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

186. The Miracle Worker: A Play by William Gibson

187. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

188. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin

189. Molière: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor

190. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 by Milton Friedman

191. Monsieur Proust by Céleste Albaret

192. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars

193. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

194. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

195. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

196. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh

197. My Life as Author and Editor by H.L. Mencken

198. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest

199. Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo

200. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

N

201. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

202. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

203. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

204. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

205. Nervous System: The Story of a Novelist Who Lost His Mind by Jan Lars Jensen

206. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

207. The Way Things Work Now by David Macaulay

208. Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

209. Night by Elie Wiesel

210. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

211. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by Vincent B. Leitch

212. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell

213. Novels 1944-1962: My Home Is Far Away / The Locusts Have No King / The Wicked Pavilion / The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell

214. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

O

215. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

216. Old School by Tobias Wolff

217. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

218. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

219. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

220. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan

221. Oracle Night by Paul Auster

222. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

223. Othello by Shakespeare

224. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

225. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

226. Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

227. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

P

228. A Passage to India by E.M. Foster

229. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan

230. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

231. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

232. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

233. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington

234. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

235. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain

236. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

237. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

238. The Portable Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche

239. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind

240. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

241. Property by Valerie Martin

242. Pushkin: A Biography by T.J. Binyon

243. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Q

244. Quattrocento by James Mckean

245. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall

R

246. Rapunzel by Brothers Grimm

247. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

248. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

249. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

250. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

251. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

252. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

253. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman

254. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

255. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

256. Rita Hayworth and SHawshank Redemption by Stephen King

257. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert

258. Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

259. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

260. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

261. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

262. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

263. The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition by ROugh Guides

S

264. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi

265. Sanctuary by William Faulkner

266. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

267. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum

268. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

269. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

270. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

271. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

272. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

273. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

274. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

275. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

276. Sexus: The ROsy Crucifixion by Henry Miller

277. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

278. Shane by Jack Shaefer

279. The Shining by Stephen King

280. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

281. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton

282. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut

283. Small Island by Andrea Levy

284. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

285. Snow White and Rose Red by Brothers Grimm

286. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore

287. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

288. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos

289. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

290. Songbook by Nick Hornby

291. Sonnets by William Shakespeare

292. Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

293. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

294. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

295. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov

296. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

297. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

298. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

299. Stuart Little by E.B. White

300. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

301. Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

302. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett

303. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber

T

304. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

305. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

306. Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

307. Time and Again by Jack Finney

308. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

309. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

310. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

311. The Tragedy of Richard The Third by William Shakespeare

312. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

313. The Trial by Franz Kafka

314. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson

315. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

316. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom

U

317. Ulysses by James Joyce

318. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath

319. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

320. Unless by Carol Shields

V

321. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

322. The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age by Philip Meyer

323. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

324. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard

325. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

W

326. Waiting for Godot: a Tragicomedy in Two Acts by Samuel Beckett

327. Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

328. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

329. We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews by Daniel Sinker

330. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles

331. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell

332. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

333. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

334. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee

335. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

336. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

337. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

X

Y

338. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

339. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Z

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (Rory Gilmore Reading List)

A

340. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

341. All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

342. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

343. The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as a History by Norman Mailer

344. The Art of Living by Epictetus

B

345. Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten

C

346. Cinderella by Brothers Grimm

347. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

348. Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace

349. Contact by Carl Sagan

350. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

D

351. Dracula by Bram Stoker

352. Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee

E

353. The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

F

G

354. A Girl From Yamhill by Beverly Cleary

355. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

356. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago

H

357. Haiku Volume II: Spring by R.H. Blyth

358. Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson

359. Henry VI by William Shakespeare

360. He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

361. Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss

I

362. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

363. Indiana by George Sand

J

364. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

K

L

365. Letters of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand

366. Letters of Edith Wharton by R.W.B. Lewis

367. The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus

368. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

369. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

370. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

371. Lisa and David/Jordi by Dr. Theodore I. Rubin, M.D.

372. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

M

373. Matilda by Roald Dahl

374. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray, Ph.D.

375. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

376. Misery by Stephen King

377. Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt

378. Molloy by Samuel Beckett

379. Mötley Crüe by Seamus Craic

380. The Mourning Bride by William Congreve

381. My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard

N

382. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

383. Nancy Drew 33: the Witch Tree Symbol by Carolyn Keene

384. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

O

385. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

386. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

387. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

P

388. Primary Colors by Anonymous

389. The Pump House Gang by Tom Wolfe

390. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Q

R

391. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

392. Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem by Gloria Steinem

S

393. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

394. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

395. A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin

396. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

397. Summer of Fear by T. Jefferson Parker

T

398. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

399. Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem

400. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy

401. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

402. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

U

403. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

V

404. Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac

W

405. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

406. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

X

Y

407. Yoga for Dummies by Larry Payne and Georg Feuerstein

Z

Bonus

408. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary

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Rory Gilmore Reading List Challenge

If you are looking for a fun way to challenge yourself to read all of the books on the Rory Gilmore reading list, The Paper Cutting Nerd on Etsy has some fun colouring pages to purchase or download. They are focused on the original TV series and are super cute.

Rory Gilmore Reading List

Rory Gilmore reading list of books is one of the longest, most eclectic collections of books out there. It is definitely a commitment to read all of them, and I am thrilled that I have read quite a few. There is a list on Goodreads if you are up for the challenge of adding any of these Rory Gilmore reading list books to your TBR. How many of these books have you read and enjoyed?