5 Books From Rory Gilmore's Reading List You Should Add To Your TBR

Rory, the bright, precocious teen at the heart of the beloved television show, "Gilmore Girls," is a total bookworm. In a show that's already stacked with quippy literary references, Rory nearly always has her nose buried in a massive tome. Her tastes lean toward the classics, including dense novels like "Moby-Dick" and "Dead Souls." Still, she made time for a few popular contemporary picks, like Ian McEwan's "Atonement." Plus, she clearly knows that some celebrity memoirs are actually great, well-written books, since she makes a reference to poppier books like Pamela Des Barres' rock and roll memoir, "I'm With the Band."

Of course, "Gilmore Girls" ended in 2007, but fans have some theories about what books Rory would be reading these days. "I think she would be an Elena Ferrante girlie," wrote one Reddit commenter. "'Pachinko'!" suggested another commenter. "It's so good and seems like a Rory kind of book to me." Another Reddit commenter had a theory about what books Rory would be bantering about: "I feel like she and Jess would have debates over Sally Rooney."

However, when it comes to purely canonical references, fans of the show have compiled all the books she is seen carrying or that she references in conversation into one lengthy Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, which includes over 300 books. One Reddit user even created a Google Doc template that allows you to check off books as you finish them. If you're looking for something to add to your reading stack, this list is packed with inspiration.

In Season 1 Episode 16, "Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers," Rory urges her boyfriend Dean to read one of her favorite books: "Anna Karenina." This epic 19th-century novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy is best known as a tale of doomed love and the downfall of its namesake heroine, Anna. But there's more than just heartbreak in this classic tale, which also follows the less tragic lives of other characters, like the introspective and deeply spiritual Levin. "My favorite discovery was the three or four chapters (out of the book's 239) devoted to, of all things, scythe mowing — chapters that become a celebratory meditation on physical labor," wrote one Goodreads reviewer.

Despite its considerable length, "Anna Karenina" is fast-paced and absorbing. It's clear from her reading list that Rory loves Russian literature, and this is arguably the most approachable of her selections. "This is a surprisingly fast-moving, interesting, and easy-to-read novel," wrote another Goodreads reviewer. "You find yourself instantly engrossed in this kind of Russian soap opera, filled with weird and intriguing characters." It's a classic everyone should read, and you'll find it delightfully easy to check off your list.

At Yale, Rory takes a break from the classics to pick up the contemporary novel "Atonement" in Season 4 Episode 3, "The Hobbit, the Sofa and Digger Stiles." Ian McEwan's historical novel, about a childhood mistake that haunts Briony Tallis for the rest of her life, won the National Book Critics Award and was later adapted into a film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This story turns on a domestic, interpersonal drama, and yet the stakes are amplified by World War II. Ewan depicts the war with sprawling, immersive accuracy.

Yet, despite his attention to historical detail, Ewans's greatest strength as a writer is the rich interiority of his characters. "It's the psychological stuff that is really outstanding," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "McEwan has a knack for taking his readers deep into his characters' minds, letting them share their most intimate, most uncomfortable thoughts and feelings." He unearths his character's darkest secrets in a way that's profoundly humanizing, and that makes it a perfect modern classic to pick for your next book club read.

If "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" seems like an abrupt left turn for Rory, that's because it kind of is. This book by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain comes into Rory's life as a recommendation from her crush and fellow bookworm, Jess, in Season 2 Episode 19, "Teach Me Tonight." While an oral history of punk might not be on brand for Rory, it certainly is for Jess, who has a bit of edgy worldliness to him — especially when stacked against the very sheltered Rory. While we don't get to see her reading this one onscreen, it's included in most versions of the Rory Reading List Challenge. Of course, considering this is the girl who went into mourning for weeks over the death of The Clash frontman Joe Strummer, and the fact that she's massively swooning over Jess (even if he's the worst), it's a safe bet that she picked this one up and read it immediately.

McNeil and McCain organized exhaustive interviews with musicians and band managers, and groupies into a compelling narrative arc that pulls back the curtains on the punk world. "This was a fascinating book giving an uncompromising view of the nasty underbelly that spawned punk rock," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "The sheer amount of destructive and self-destructive behavior was pretty overwhelming, but it makes for fascinating reading." While this probably didn't earn Rory any points on her AP Exams, this is a history book that will totally absorb you.

This unusual memoir by Dave Eggers made Rory's reading list while she was at Yale, in Season 5 Episode 15, "Jews and Chinese Food." In alternating turns, Eggers' book is sidesplitting and heart-wrenching as he recounts, in escalating flights of postmodern fancy, the early death of his parents and his subsequent experience raising his tween brother in the San Francisco Bay Area. This Pulitzer Prize finalist book made Eggers into a literary darling, so it's unsurprising that — despite being modern and not a well-worn classic — it caught Rory's eye.

This book is perhaps most famous for its meta self-awareness. Eggers' writing is almost hysterical, packed with direct addresses to the reader, endlessly recursive trains of thought, and outlandish imagined scenarios. But the memoir's staying power as a modern classic comes from the earnest story at its core. "What saves this book," wrote one Goodreads reviewer, "is not the linguistic pranks (which are often very, very funny), but the tender story of Eggers's desperate love for his eight-year-old brother after the death of their parents." It's the high-wire balancing act between funny and sad that makes this novel so memorable, and definitely worth picking up.

Though Rory starts out as an aspiring journalist, the 2016 "A Year In the Life" reunion special finds her working on a memoir. Perhaps that transition was influenced by the work of writers like Joan Didion, whose 2005 memoir, "The Year of Magical Thinking," Rory is seen reading in Season 6 Episode 15, "A Vineyard Valentine." Didion became famous for her clear-eyed coverage of California during the late '60s and early '70s, but her focus gradually turned toward her own life. In cutting, muscular prose, "The Year of Magical Thinking" is a meditation on grief, as Didion tries to make sense of the world after the abrupt death of her husband.

In a sense, Didion has replicated, on the page, the conscious experience of grief. "She interweaves memories of the good times with the delicate balance of making it through the first year after [her husband's] passing," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "At the same time Didion is recalibrating her life, she is also helping her seriously ill daughter. Her stages of grief are complex, and she doesn't shy away from writing the hard truths." Though Rory's complete reading list suggests that she prefers classic novels and even history, we're guessing she counted Didion among her influences when it came time to write her own memoir.