A reading list for Rory Gilmore
by Zeljka Marosevic
The rumours had been raging all summer but it was only a couple of weeks ago that Netflix confirmed it would be reuniting the cast of Gilmore Girls for four new 90 minute episodes. Fifteen years after the drama first aired, and eight years since it ended, Gilmore Girls is still fiercely loved by its fans. And if those fans can be characterised in one word, that word is bookish.
Not many hit dramas are about characters who are big readers, and Gilmore Girls filled this void. As a teenager Rory Gilmore always carried a bag large enough to fit in a book, and during her time at Yale she preferred staying in and studying to throwing parties. She began her high school valedictorian speech with the words: “I live in two worlds, one is a world of books.” That world extended to the fast-paced conversations with her mother Lorelai, which were stuffed with literary references, and many of the episodes have titles that are puns on the names of books or authors.
Even outside of the show, Rory has become a kind of inspiration for readers. The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge lists the 339 books that Rory was seen reading or at one point referenced during the show, and challenges viewers to complete them all, too.
But it’s been eight years since the show finished and a lot has happened since in the world of books and literary culture. In order to re-join the literary conversation in 2016, Lorelai and Rory have quite a bit of catching up to do. So to help them out, here’s a list of must-reads, and some predictions of what the ever-opinionated Gilmore girls will think of them:
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante—I think we all know who is Lenaand who is Lila.
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