Latest / Friday Night Readers: Gilmore Girls Inspired Book Club / 📚How Many Books Did Rory Gilmore Actually Read? I Fact-Checked 192.
Transcript
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Friday Night Readers.
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: Filled by coffee, we break down the books referenced on Gilmore Girls.
- 0:11Our little literary corner of the world helps you understand
- 0:14what the characters
- 0:15SPEAKER_00: are talking so fast about and live in a world of books like worry,
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: like short,
- 0:20read fast before we dive in don't forget to subscribe to our
- 0:23Friday Night Readers
- 0:24newsletter community on Substack you'll get instant access to a
- 0:28free printable list
- 0:29of 450 plus books on Gilmore Girls plus even more Gilmore
- 0:34inspired content like our
- 0:36Rory Gilmore reading challenge which we've been doing together
- 0:39since 2020 paid
- 0:40members get exclusive extras come hang out where the real
- 0:43Gilmore magic happens
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: fridaynightreaders.substack.com
- 0:49hello friday night readers i am really excited to be with you
- 0:52here today for a few
- 0:53SPEAKER_01: reasons first i checked our podcast stats this morning
- 0:57and I was really surprised because I never check them so I
- 1:01think in my head is
- 1:02anyone listening to this and I never really know but I checked
- 1:05today and our last
- 1:07episode which was last month's reading challenge the classic
- 1:10books from Gilmore
- 1:11Girls got over 4,000 listens which is actually really huge in
- 1:14the podcasting arena
- 1:15SPEAKER_01: it blew my mind to think that over 4,000 people listen to me talk
- 1:20So I had been thinking about bringing the podcast back a little
- 1:23bit more than I
- 1:24SPEAKER_01: have in the last few months.
- 1:26And that kind of gave me the impetus I needed that this is the
- 1:29right move to go.
- 1:30We had a little bit of a slow start and I think I really found
- 1:33my footing once I started
- 1:35SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers
- 2:01that it feels weird to then talk about it not in their original
- 2:04words so we'll just
- 2:05SPEAKER_01: see where that one goes maybe I'll read them straight through again for
- 2:09accessibility purposes or maybe I'll take an improv style
- 2:12approach to those as well
- 2:13but either way I think we're going to have more podcast
- 2:16episodes in the future so
- 2:17back to today's episode it is May I hope Justin Timberlake is
- 2:21really happy about
- 2:22that if you know you know and our challenge this month is to
- 2:25read books that Rory
- 2:26SPEAKER_01: read on Gilmore Girls I cannot believe that in
- 2:29SPEAKER_01: The sixth year of now running this Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge,
- 2:32SPEAKER_01: we never did this prompt before.
- 2:34SPEAKER_01: But now is actually the perfect time to do it because as you may know,
- 2:38I just finished up my two years of going through my rewatches
- 2:42of Gilmore Girls to
- 2:43SPEAKER_01: get as many books as possible verified.
- 2:46And I do have about 100 plus books that I don't think you'll
- 2:49find elsewhere.
- 2:50so I really feel like I have the most comprehensive and
- 2:53accurate set of books to go
- 2:55from to say that yes these are the books that Rory Gilmore read
- 2:59on Gilmore Girls.
- 3:00A little behind the scenes fun fact I have called this the Rory
- 3:03Gilmore Reading
- 3:03SPEAKER_01: Challenge and I used to call it the Rory Gilmore Book Club and
- 3:07SPEAKER_01: It's also often called the Rory Gilmore Reading List.
- 3:10And this gets a little bit of bad press because most of these
- 3:13lists aren't just
- 3:14SPEAKER_01: about Rory Gilmore.
- 3:15SPEAKER_01: The reason I call them that is for search engine optimization reasons.
- 3:19So when I do long form posts like this,
- 3:22I'm trying to get them seen by people.
- 3:23SPEAKER_01: So I do keyword research and what the keyword research tells me is
- 3:27SPEAKER_01: is that this is the way people are searching for it.
- 3:29So something as simple as calling it Gilmore Girls book list to
- 3:32be more accurate is
- 3:33SPEAKER_01: not going to get it seen.
- 3:35SPEAKER_01: And that's why I tend to refer to Rory Gilmore.
- 3:36SPEAKER_01: But in doing so over the past several years,
- 3:39SPEAKER_01: I've seen a lot of questions,
- 3:40SPEAKER_01: namely on Reddit,
- 3:41SPEAKER_01: where people are very skeptical saying,
- 3:44SPEAKER_01: but what are the books Rory actually read?
- 3:46SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't able to answer that until right now.
- 3:48I'm so happy to finally be able to tell you,
- 3:50yes,
- 3:51I know all the books that Rory Gil
- 3:52SPEAKER_01: and here they are.
- 3:53And that's exactly what we're going to read this month in the
- 3:56Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge.
- 3:57SPEAKER_01: First, let's talk about our featured book of the month.
- 3:59SPEAKER_01: In case you're new around here,
- 4:01the way our book club works is that I pick a reading prompt
- 4:04that matches several of
- 4:05SPEAKER_01: the books on Gilmore Girls and then you can pick whatever book you want.
- 4:09The reason I do it this way is because I know a lot of readers
- 4:11have read a lot of
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: the classics and I don't want to pick something that you already read.
- 4:15SPEAKER_01: I also want you to feel really satisfied in your own reading life
- 4:18SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers
- 4:33SPEAKER_01: So anyway, our featured book this month is A Room of Ones
- 4:48by Virginia Woolf it is actually an essay if I recall correctly
- 4:52I read it in about
- 4:53an hour on audio and it's really funny how these things work
- 4:56out because since I
- 4:57moved to Substack almost a year ago I have always wanted to talk
- 5:00about a room of
- 5:01one's own because when I moved to my house during the pandemic
- 5:05it came with a
- 5:06SPEAKER_01: little loft that had
- 5:07bookshelves already in it which was going to become my reading
- 5:10room and that's one
- 5:11of the reasons we bought the house and I've shared my reading
- 5:13room before in other
- 5:15projects I've done but I've never shared it on Substack and the
- 5:17moment just seems to
- 5:18always slip me by it's something that's always on my mind every
- 5:21month I'm always
- 5:22SPEAKER_01: thinking
- 5:22SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers and in my writing and career life.
- 5:25SPEAKER_01: And I've sort of expanded the Friday Night Readers brand.
- 5:27SPEAKER_01: This is something I always intended to do.
- 5:38When I came over to Substack I changed our book club name from
- 5:42the Rory Gilmore book
- 5:43club to Friday Night Readers because I wanted it to allude to
- 5:47Gilmore Girls but be
- 5:48a little bit more open ended to include things like seasonal
- 5:51living and all the
- 5:52SPEAKER_01: feel good stuff that we love about
- 5:53SPEAKER_01: Gilmore Girls that is not just books.
- 5:55SPEAKER_01: The way I'm looking at it now is a little bit more like a personal brand.
- 5:59SPEAKER_01: I am your real life Rory Gilmore.
- 6:00I'm the same age as her and we have so much in common and the
- 6:04three pillars within
- 6:05SPEAKER_01: my content are reading,
- 6:07SPEAKER_01: living,
- 6:07SPEAKER_01: and writing like a Gilmore.
- 6:08SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers
- 6:23I've learned so much and have so much to share and have worked
- 6:26with creators behind
- 6:27the scenes and all these things I think are very interesting
- 6:30especially on a
- 6:30platform like Substack where it literally is a platform of
- 6:33writers so I added this
- 6:35section on Substack called Room to Write and that's where I'm
- 6:39going to put the
- 6:39writing stuff and the way it's set up is that you can do both
- 6:42Friday Night Readers
- 6:44and Room to Write posts or you can choose either or so there
- 6:48may be some people who
- 6:49SPEAKER_01: are only interested in writing and only want to do the writing content
- 6:52and there may be people who are interested in just the Gilmore
- 6:56Girls Book Club and
- 6:57of course there may be people who are interested in all of it
- 6:59this way it's like a
- 6:59choose your own adventure the way I set it all up within the
- 7:02Friday Night Readers
- 7:03Substack because I had thought about doing a separate Substack
- 7:06and decided against it
- 7:07so here's what I said on the room to write section header these
- 7:10are the highs lows
- 7:11and messy middles I've lived through as a former lawyer turned
- 7:14full-time writer who
- 7:15SPEAKER_01: wants to see you achieve a sustainable creative business too
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: I'm building in public on Substack,
- 7:20SPEAKER_01: sharing the most and least impactful strategies I've implemented,
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: and keeping it authentic and transparent along the way.
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: I believe in hard work,
- 7:28SPEAKER_01: consistency,
- 7:29SPEAKER_01: collaboration,
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: and dedication to your craft,
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: not growth hacks.
- 7:33SPEAKER_01: In a room of one's own,
- 7:34SPEAKER_01: Virginia Woolf said,
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write.
- 7:39Nearly a century later,
- 7:40Rory Gilmore found her own room to write on the reboot of
- 7:43Gilmore Girls.
- 7:44SPEAKER_01: And here, I'm going behind the scenes on mine.
- 7:47SPEAKER_01: This is our room to write.
- 7:48So what I'll be doing to feature this book this month is
- 7:51sharing my reading room
- 7:53and then I'm going to write another essay that will be the
- 7:55first essay in the room
- 7:56to write section which will be either about where I write my
- 7:59home office or the
- 8:01journey behind the scenes in my writing life from the beginning
- 8:03until now or maybe
- 8:05SPEAKER_01: a little bit of both.
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: So if you want to read our featured book this month
- 8:09pick up a room of one's own and remember it is an essay and you
- 8:12can read it really
- 8:13quick it's one that readers have loved over the years and I
- 8:16think it is both
- 8:16because it is short and easy and it has feminist themes in case
- 8:21you're wondering on
- 8:22Gilmore Girls you will find Rory reading it on the bus in the
- 8:25episode 1.05
- 8:27SPEAKER_01: cinnamon's wake if I remember correctly
- 8:29This is when she's reading on the bus and then Dean comes in
- 8:31and she jumps because
- 8:32SPEAKER_01: he scares her.
- 8:33SPEAKER_01: She's still in that stage where she likes him but she's afraid of him.
- 8:36SPEAKER_00: Okay,
- 8:36so now let's talk about 10 books Rory Gilmore famously read on
- 8:40Gilmore Girls to
- 8:41give you some ideas of what you can pick if you don't want to
- 8:43pick a room of one's
- 8:44SPEAKER_01: own.
- 8:44SPEAKER_01: If you head to the Substack Post that accompanies this episode,
- 8:47SPEAKER_01: you will see a lovely collage.
- 8:49SPEAKER_01: that has pictures of Rory reading each of these books on the show.
- 8:52SPEAKER_01: It's one of those things that just makes you feel good to see,
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: especially in an age when everyone is talking about AI,
- 8:58SPEAKER_01: what's hard about living in a world with it,
- 9:00SPEAKER_01: and what life without it looks like.
- 9:02SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to go through these in alphabetical order.
- 9:04SPEAKER_01: The first one is Atonement by Ian McKeown.
- 9:07this is the book that Rory reads before her first Yale class of
- 9:10course Rory would
- 9:11go to college and read even before class and I read this one I
- 9:16think it was last
- 9:16year for the reading challenge it's a historical fiction novel
- 9:19and it's about a
- 9:20young girl I believe it starts in the early 1900s and she
- 9:24witnesses something and
- 9:26SPEAKER_01: makes a claim about it I don't want to give too much away
- 9:29But that causes something bad in those people's lives and she
- 9:32spends the rest of
- 9:33SPEAKER_01: her life repenting for it because she was actually wrong.
- 9:36It's a slow read but the ending really packs a punch and makes
- 9:39you think about her
- 9:40SPEAKER_01: as the ultimate unreliable narrator.
- 9:42SPEAKER_01: So I do recommend that one.
- 9:44SPEAKER_01: Next is Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg.
- 9:47SPEAKER_01: This is in season two, episode five, Nick and Nora, Sid and Nancy.
- 9:51SPEAKER_01: This is Jess's first episode on the show.
- 9:54SPEAKER_01: And of course,
- 9:55he borrows this book from Maury and then they discuss both the
- 9:58book and his notes
- 9:59SPEAKER_01: in the margins of it.
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: Next is Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone.
- 10:03I hope I said that right anyway it is in season 2 episode 7 and
- 10:07Rory reads it on
- 10:08the couch at home I'm actually not super familiar with this one
- 10:12but when I read the
- 10:13description it totally made sense to me that Rory read it so
- 10:16I'm going to just go
- 10:17through the description with you because I don't really know
- 10:19how to describe it
- 10:20myself so she is one of the great literary figures of the 20th
- 10:24century and she
- 10:24gives an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French
- 10:27family rebelling as
- 10:29SPEAKER_01: an adolescent sound familiar and
- 10:31SPEAKER_01: It goes through her friendships,
- 10:32SPEAKER_01: her love interests,
- 10:33SPEAKER_01: her mentors,
- 10:33and the most important relationship of her life with fellow
- 10:35student John Paul
- 10:36SPEAKER_01: Sartre who is also
- 10:50Reference on Gilmore Girls I know for a fact that Sookie
- 10:52references him I'm not
- 10:54sure if anyone else does And this is all set against the
- 10:56backdrop of a turbulent
- 10:58political time So you may not have thought of reading this one
- 11:00But I wonder if it
- 11:02is intriguing you Because it certainly intrigued me And I do
- 11:05see so many parallels
- 11:06with Worry I'm not going to read it this month But I'm
- 11:08definitely putting it up
- 11:09SPEAKER_01: higher on my list
- 11:11SPEAKER_01: Next is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
- 11:13SPEAKER_01: I love this image of Rory.
- 11:15She is sitting on the couch in season two,
- 11:17episode four at her grandparents' house.
- 11:19SPEAKER_01: And I forget what Lorelai and Emily are fighting about,
- 11:21but she's just sitting quietly reading between them as they
- 11:23argue with each other.
- 11:24SPEAKER_01: And this is another good one by Virginia Woolf.
- 11:26It's one of those books that only takes place in one day in the
- 11:29life of a woman.
- 11:30SPEAKER_01: And it's really about
- 11:32If you've read the book Lily and Boxfish Takes a Walk,
- 11:35it reminds me of that one.
- 11:37I don't want to give too much away about it though,
- 11:39so I'm just going to leave it at that.
- 11:40SPEAKER_01: We also have Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.
- 11:43SPEAKER_01: This is season four, episode four.
- 11:45SPEAKER_01: Rory comes home from Yale.
- 11:46SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers
- 12:01this girl who gets swept away into the books that she's reading
- 12:05so of course this
- 12:05is a great pick for Rory it's a little bit different for Austin
- 12:09but it's actually
- 12:09one of my favorites of hers and I think it works really well on
- 12:12audio because it's
- 12:13not as hard as some of the other classics I will say I tried to
- 12:16watch the movie
- 12:17SPEAKER_01: adaptation of it which was an older one and I just could not get into it
- 12:21I'd love to see a more modern adaptation of it and I hope you
- 12:24feel inspired to pick
- 12:25it up because it really is great I also think Jane Austen works
- 12:28so well in the
- 12:29spring and if you want to read a classic in the spring but
- 12:32don't want it to feel
- 12:33too hard this would be a great one okay so now we have the
- 12:36portable Dorothy Parker
- 12:38by of course Dorothy Parker and you may recall this one this is
- 12:42the book that Rory
- 12:43brings to the dance with Dean in season one episode nine and
- 12:46then they fall asleep
- 12:47reading it the poem that they read is called coda in case you
- 12:51just want to look up
- 12:52SPEAKER_01: that poem this
- 12:53is a long book it's 656 pages I personally don't know much
- 12:57about Dorothy Parker but
- 12:58what I recall offhand is that she was a member of the Algonquin
- 13:01group which is
- 13:02actually something that Taylor Swift also talks about and I
- 13:05can't think of the word
- 13:06SPEAKER_01: I want to say right now for her work but it's like
- 13:09SPEAKER_01: taking a look at life with a very skeptical point of view.
- 13:12SPEAKER_01: And let's also talk about The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
- 13:15SPEAKER_01: This is a short story.
- 13:16So another very brief one that you can read in probably about a
- 13:19half hour,
- 13:20SPEAKER_01: I think it's 20 pages.
- 13:21And Rory reads this one under her favorite treat at Yale in
- 13:24season four,
- 13:25episode six,
- 13:26Hemingway actually becomes a really big part of her years at
- 13:29Yale and I did really
- 13:31enjoy this one I did need to look it up afterwards to get a
- 13:34better understanding of
- 13:35what it meant but once I did I really appreciated it and I did
- 13:39think it was an
- 13:39SPEAKER_01: interesting well-written short story
- 13:41One of the better short stories I've read actually I'm pretty
- 13:44tough on short
- 13:44stories Okay so Ulysses by James Joyce Rory reads this in
- 13:48season one episode 20 I
- 13:50don't recall the exact moment I think she was waiting for Lane
- 13:54And she had her
- 13:54backpack on and was in her Chilton uniform So this book is
- 13:58notoriously difficult It
- 13:59SPEAKER_01: is written in an experimental style
- 14:02I believe it's actually considered one of the hardest books of
- 14:04all time it's an
- 14:05Irish novel about three Dubliners and as I click on the Amazon
- 14:09description to see
- 14:10what more I could tell you about it it actually says it was
- 14:13banned in the United
- 14:13SPEAKER_01: States on account of quote pornographic content I wasn't aware of
- 14:17SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers
- 14:32SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers
- 14:55which is actually difficult for me in the age of Kindles when I
- 14:58can set the font to
- 14:59SPEAKER_01: whatever size I want.
- 15:00SPEAKER_01: It makes it extra hard to pick up a book that has writing that small.
- 15:04Anyway,
- 15:04Sylvia Plath is one of the most popular authors on our Gilmore
- 15:07Girls book list.
- 15:08SPEAKER_01: Readers love to pick up The Bell Jar which is
- 15:10SPEAKER_01: The Bell Jar also includes themes of depression.
- 15:25SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers
- 15:49SPEAKER_01: Do I think the episode did it justice?
- 15:51SPEAKER_01: No, I do not.
- 15:52SPEAKER_01: The episode looks very California and not very New England to me.
- 15:55SPEAKER_01: But anyway,
- 15:56this is an interesting choice for Rory to read as a beach read
- 15:59on vacation because
- 16:01SPEAKER_01: it is about grief.
- 16:02Joan Didion is a famous journalist and her husband died very
- 16:06suddenly and then her
- 16:07SPEAKER_01: daughter became ill.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: So this is about a very difficult year in her life.
- 16:11It is a good book and readers do love it but you are picking up
- 16:14something that is
- 16:15SPEAKER_01: more serious in tone.
- 16:16It was actually a National Book Award winner and one of the New
- 16:19York Times 100 Best
- 16:20SPEAKER_01: Books of the 21st Century.
- 16:22SPEAKER_01: I'm also aware that
- 16:24SPEAKER_01: It was adapted into, I believe it was a one woman stage show.
- 16:27SPEAKER_01: So I think that's interesting too.
- 16:29If you are able to either look that up on YouTube or go and see
- 16:33it in person,
- 16:34SPEAKER_01: that would be an interesting way to consume this book.
- 16:36I have one more tip for you and that is that you can also read
- 16:39the books from Maury
- 16:40SPEAKER_01: Gilmore's graduation speech.
- 16:42SPEAKER_01: I have linked a blog post about that in the show notes.
- 16:44SPEAKER_01: Let's just run through a few of them while we are talking.
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: We have The Sound and the Fury, which I've already mentioned.
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: Moby Dick, another hard book.
- 16:52about a whale but a classic this is the book that Dean sees
- 16:55worry reading in the
- 16:56first episode and then it's also on Jess's list and by the way
- 17:00she later discusses
- 17:01SPEAKER_01: it with Logan as well so if you want a book that spans all three of those
- 17:04SPEAKER_01: relationships this would be the one to pick up War and Peace
- 17:07another tough one but people on Substack have been picking that
- 17:10up and reading it
- 17:11together I think that's something that you can do with one of
- 17:14those Substacks over
- 17:15time because it would be another one that's really long and a
- 17:18challenge Adventures
- 17:19SPEAKER_01: of Huckleberry Finn super popular book on the list
- 17:22it was the first book mentioned on the show a reader favorite
- 17:25and I love this one
- 17:26because the show Gilmore Girls was actually created after Amy
- 17:30Sherman Palladino
- 17:31went to visit Mark Twain's home in Connecticut so you get that
- 17:34nice little
- 17:35connection as well A Confederacy of Dunces I thought this book
- 17:38was actually pretty
- 17:39SPEAKER_01: hard
- 17:40It's supposed to be more comical about this kind of loser guy
- 17:44living with his mom
- 17:45SPEAKER_01: in New Orleans and these adventures that he has going around town.
- 17:48SPEAKER_01: I believe he's looking for a job, if I remember right.
- 17:51SPEAKER_01: What's interesting about this one is that it is also read by Jessica.
- 17:55and I will say it totally fits Jess's reading type of course we
- 17:59have Anna Karenina
- 18:00I do love Anna Karenina it's long but it's not really a
- 18:04challenge you just have to
- 18:05SPEAKER_01: read it slowly and I also found it very helpful to read summaries
- 18:10after every chapter and this way if you pick this one yes it is
- 18:14long but you get to
- 18:14walk away from the month knowing that you read Rory Gilmore's
- 18:17favorite book and I
- 18:18will say it's one of the books that I'm happiest I've read in
- 18:21this challenge it's
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: one that I always go back to in my mind that really made a long
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers Friday Night Readers
- 18:40SPEAKER_00: Friday Night Readers
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: This is the book that Rory loans to Dean and he reads it,
- 18:59which I think is actually really sweet that he does something
- 19:02that he knows she
- 19:02SPEAKER_01: will like.
- 19:03And what I really love about Jane Austen on the show is
- 19:05actually the scene where
- 19:07SPEAKER_01: Paris and Jess discuss Jane Austen and other authors.
- 19:10I think they just had the best literary banter and I would have
- 19:13loved more scenes
- 19:14SPEAKER_00: with the two of them talking about books.
- 19:16SPEAKER_01: Finally, Eudora Welty.
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: I've linked her collected stories,
- 19:19but she also wrote a book featured on Gilmore Girls called The
- 19:22Optimist Daughter.
- 19:23and she's a Pulitzer Prize winner and she's known for her
- 19:25southern background and
- 19:27SPEAKER_01: her short stories.
- 19:28This is a book that Rory shoves into her backpack when she's
- 19:31filling it with a ton
- 19:32SPEAKER_01: of books and she's saying oh this is my bus book,
- 19:34SPEAKER_01: this is my lunch book,
- 19:35SPEAKER_01: this is my other bus book.
- 19:36SPEAKER_01: Okay so that gives
- 19:38It gives you a really good start to reading like Rory Gilmore
- 19:40with us this month.
- 19:41If you want the full list of 192 books that I have counted that
- 19:46Rory actually read
- 19:47SPEAKER_01: on Gilmore Girls,
- 19:48SPEAKER_01: then head to the Substack Post.
- 19:49SPEAKER_01: This one is for paid subscribers.
- 19:51And the reason is that it took me two years to compile the 477
- 19:56verified books on
- 19:57SPEAKER_01: Gilmore Girls,
- 19:58which in my opinion is the most comprehensive and accurate list
- 20:02on the internet.
- 20:03and then it also actually took me something like 15 hours to
- 20:06put together this post
- 20:07and podcast because I had to go through 200 pages of episodes
- 20:11to pull out each book
- 20:12that Rory read and put it into a list with you with little
- 20:15reviews of whether I
- 20:16loved it liked it or didn't like it and then I also note
- 20:19whether I thought it was
- 20:20easy because I know people like to pick up easy books another
- 20:22thing I did was I
- 20:24added in a printable checklist so that if you want to track
- 20:27your reading just like
- 20:28Rory Gilmore you can do that there's a few things I want to
- 20:31note about this list
- 20:32SPEAKER_00: before we go
- 20:33The first is that I'm actually surprised that only 40% of the
- 20:36books on Gilmore
- 20:36Girls are attributable to Rory what I actually found when I
- 20:39went through my 200
- 20:40page guide which by the way I will be self-publishing as a book
- 20:43soon right now paid
- 20:45subscribers can print it themselves that comes as one of your
- 20:48other benefits of
- 20:48being a paid Substack subscriber but anyway what I found was
- 20:52that I actually think
- 20:54Lorelai referenced books much more often and much more
- 20:56naturally throughout her
- 20:58SPEAKER_01: everyday language on the show here's the reasons I think this is the case
- 21:02SPEAKER_01: One,
- 21:02I think Lorelai just happened to be on screen more Two is that
- 21:05we know that Rory's
- 21:06SPEAKER_01: reading life did have some gaps If you know,
- 21:09SPEAKER_01: you know And also,
- 21:10many of her books were repeated during the series So while
- 21:13she's seen with books a
- 21:14lot more on the show Oftentimes they were the same book So
- 21:17there's less books,
- 21:18even though they were featured more Another reason is that a
- 21:21lot of times she only
- 21:22SPEAKER_01: refers to an author Not to a specific book
- 21:25SPEAKER_01: So just so you know,
- 21:26SPEAKER_01: before we go,
- 21:27a few more things I want to note about my list of the 192 books
- 21:31that Rory read.
- 21:31SPEAKER_01: I did have to set some ground rules.
- 21:33SPEAKER_01: There's always nuance in compiling lists like these.
- 21:36SPEAKER_01: So here,
- 21:37the way I decided to do it was a book must have been in her
- 21:40possession or she must
- 21:42SPEAKER_01: have referred to it unless it's mentioned in a class she's taken.
- 21:45SPEAKER_01: So if her Yale teacher is talking about Hemingway,
- 21:48SPEAKER_01: then I assume she is reading Hemingway for that class.
- 21:51The Only Time I Did Not Do This Is On Her First Day At Chilton
- 21:54Because If You
- 21:55Remember She Comes Into Class They're Talking About All These
- 21:58Authors And It's Her
- 21:59First Day She's Overwhelmed I Don't Think She Would Have Read
- 22:02Those Books On That
- 22:03Day Next If A Book Was Spotted At The Gilmore House Or In
- 22:07Rory's Dorm Or Apartment
- 22:08I Only Included It If It Was On Rory's Shelf Not On A Communal
- 22:12Shelf So To Me Rory
- 22:14Seems Like The Type Of Person Who Keeps All The Books That She
- 22:17Actually Reads In
- 22:18SPEAKER_01: Her Personal Possession
- 22:20SPEAKER_01: And when you see what books are on the communal shelves,
- 22:23SPEAKER_01: they really do seem like they would belong more to Lorelai or to Paris.
- 22:26SPEAKER_01: Last but not least, if someone handed her a book, I assumed she read it.
- 22:30SPEAKER_01: To sum up Rory's reading list, here's what I found.
- 22:33SPEAKER_01: Her Chilton years were
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: Friday Night Readers
- 22:50This is where we see her reading things like The Year of
- 22:52Magical Thinking.
- 22:53And I love that because it just shows that even though she was
- 22:56in college,
- 22:57SPEAKER_01: she was staying in touch with what was happening in the literary world.
- 23:00SPEAKER_01: And throughout the entire series,
- 23:02SPEAKER_01: we also see her talking fast about pop culture,
- 23:05SPEAKER_01: like famous movie adaptations.
- 23:06SPEAKER_01: Here's where you'll get things like The Wizard of Oz,
- 23:09SPEAKER_01: which all characters will understand,
- 23:11SPEAKER_01: not just the most literary ones on the show.
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that is it for today.
- 23:15If you want even more,
- 23:16head to the Substack for the full list,
- 23:18the printable,
- 23:19Friday Night Readers I love having you here in our little
- 23:21corner of the Gilmore
- 23:22Bros world if you'd like even more feel good fun then upgrade
- 23:25to a free or paid
- 23:26SPEAKER_01: email subscription membership at fridaynightreaders.substack.com
- 23:44SPEAKER_00: Paid members get exclusive extras.
- 23:46You'll also unlock members-only posts,
- 23:49as well as bulk community access to our chats.
- 23:52SPEAKER_00: It's the coziest virtual place like Stars Hollow,
- 23:55SPEAKER_00: and your support helps keep this podcast going strong.
- 23:58Lastly,
- 23:59if you enjoyed today's episode,
- 24:01please take a minute to rate and review the show.
- 24:04It helps other Gilmore fans find us,
- 24:06which helps me provide you with more content like this.
- 24:10SPEAKER_00: Until next time, life's short, read fast.