Pinterest Hidden ImagePinterest Hidden ImagePinterest Hidden ImagePinterest Hidden ImagePinterest Hidden ImagePinterest Hidden Image

Calling all fans of Gilmore Girls + books! Join the ultimate Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge to read the books referenced on the show. It’s free, and it’s so much fun. Read on to learn more.

2024 rory gilmore reading challenge.

Since 2021, I’ve hosted The Rory Gilmore Book Club, in which over 15,000+ followers read books of their choice from the Gilmore Girls book list based on a monthly prompt.

Entering our fourth year now, below are the monthly prompts for 2024, along with some personalized recommendations for each month, Instagram story templates to track your reading, and more!

How the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge Works

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

HOW IT WORKS

  1. Follow The Rory Gilmore Book Club on Instagram.
  2. Download the Instagram story templates at the bottom of this post and print the full Rory Gilmore book list to plan and track your reading.
  3. Each month, choose a book from the list that matches the given prompt and read it. If you need help, check out my top suggestions for book club reading in this post and all month long on Instagram.
  4. Share your reads on Instagram and engage with our community. I re-share readers’ tagged content daily to inspire and motivate you. That’s it!

Bookmark or share this post for later reference!

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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.

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.

Remember to follow and tag @TheRoryGilmoreBookClub so I can re-share your content and you can engage with others taking the challenge.

2024 rory gilmore reading challenge Instagram story template.
the rory gilmore book club reading challenge instagram story template.
the rory gilmore book club book review Instagram story template.

Printable PDFs

You can print a PDF version of the 2024 Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge along with the full Gilmore Girls book list below:

get a free rory gilmore book list

FREE BONUS

Get your printable PDF checklist of all 500+ books on the list when you subscribe to The Literary Lifestyle’s free email newsletter community.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge take?

It will likely take a person 5 to 10 years to take the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, as there are 500+ books on the list.

What’s the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge?

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge is a challenge to read the 500+ books referenced on the television show Gilmore Girls.

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.

Save This Post Form

Save This Post for Later!

Get this post instantly sent straight to your email inbox so you have it for later. Plus, you’ll get The Literary Lifestyle's newsletter.

Leave a Comment or Question

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

3 Comments

    1. Hello, and thank you for subscribing. You should have received the list automatically upon subscribing, but in case you didn’t, I also just emailed it to you! Enjoy!!
https://www.julesbuono.com/reading-challenge-for-the-rory-gilmore-book-list/
www.julesbuono.com
CC-MAIN-2024-18
479664
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:6WNYEUR5UTQWCIJZAMVXDILYPPZTIKEP
<urn:uuid:a4f9df45-981f-45a3-ba3d-96ce4f6ba173>
2024-04-18T07:50:33Z
104.18.4.29
text/html
sha1:OGKNLKPEWKUBFA6VRX7V4NAD3NXCCU7Q
<urn:uuid:8f637804-85a9-4cec-b531-2baa83c6e9d0>
https://www.julesbuono.com/reading-challenge-for-the-rory-gilmore-book-list/
response
<urn:uuid:98f1aaf8-71c8-4343-bc3d-8cdf345db0f7>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2024-18
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2024
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-188
software: Apache Nutch 1.19 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.5-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/