Category: Gilmor Girls Challenge

Gilmore Girls Challenge Update

Published on by Hannah @ Books, Life & Other Oddities3 Comments

Hello everyone! Do you remember the dim and distant days of February where I said I’d attempt to read as many books as everyone’s favourite TV bookworm, Rory Gilmore. So, only a couple months later, here’s an update on how that’s going:

1. Huckleberry Finn ✔️

Read it! All the way back in February. And I still haven’t put up review for it. Haha, I’m great at this whole blogging thing aren’t I.

2. Moby Dick ✖️

I got this one out the library and honestly, I couldn’t do it. Way too much talk of Whaling for me I’m afraid. I mean, I don’t even know what whaling is? I’m thinking I might try the Audiobook and see if I get on with that any better.

3. Madame Bovary ❌

Not going to lie, this one isn’t looking good. I haven’t found it on the library system so we might be in trouble here.

This photo is slightly more related to VE Schwab than any classic, but we’ll let that slide…

And now onto episode two. Here are the books in episode two:

At Rory’s new elite school a lot of titles are bartered around in her English lesson, so many I had to keep pausing the thing to catch up. But it’s clear from Rory’s vacant expression that she hasn’t actually read any of them. The books mentioned, that I noted down, are: Anna Kerina, Great Expectations (can you believe, I’ve actually read this one?!), The Tale of Two Cities and War and Peace (thank goodness I don’t have to read that monstrosity).

Since I’m only trying to read the ones Rory is confirmed to have read, or this challenge will never end, I’m not adding those to my list.

And that brings us nicely on to episode three, where Rory discusses just one novel with her grandfather when go golfing:

4. Chrestomathy

Ok, apparently a Chrestomathy is a collection of works or something and I missed part of the title here, but going back to the original list I think they are referring to A Mencken Chrestomathy. I’d loved to tell you what it was about but I got bored just reading the dense text that was the Goodreads blurb. Things aren’t looking good.

I will have another update with another few books soon. Meanwhile I’ll have my review of Red Queen up tomorrow! Have you read any of the books here? Have you seen the TV show? Think you can read as much as Rory? Feel free to drop a comment in the comments section.

Gilmore Girls Challenge Episode One

Published on by Hannah @ Books, Life & Other Oddities6 Comments

As you may or may not know a list was recently released with all the books ever mentioned in a show called Gilmore Girls. This started the challenge among bookworms to see how many books they’d read that one of the show’s protagonists, Rory Gilmore a huge bookworm, had also read.

Anyway, this list got me thinking: what if I tried to tick of every book? It’s a huge lists (I think there’s over 300 books) including War and Peace, aka the biggest novel I’ve ever seen, so this is near impossible. But I’ve been trying to read a classic novel every month this year and struggling to pick which ones so I thought I’d just let the show guide my choices, without really ever intending on actually ticking them all off.

There are 339 books referenced in Gilmore Girls (according to BuzzFeed, I don’t know where the original list is). If I read 1 a month it’ll take me 28 years. I stand little chance of still doing this challenge when I’m 47. But like I say I’m going to roughly let it guide my novel reading.

I rewatched Episode One last weekend (while happily soaking in the bath, which is the best way to watch any TV show) and have made a list of all the books they mentioned, so here we go! (Also I should add I’m only going to read the ones Rory actually reads, the 339 was all the books mentioned in the show, although I don’t know what the difference in number actually is).

1. Hukleburry Fin

This is Rory’s English classes book that they’re studying. Rory is an A* student so we can be pretty confident she’s done the required reading.

I read Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain as a kid and found it a little scary (he witnesses a murder and then gets threatened to keep quiet – pretty traumatic to read when you’re 9), but hopefully my 22 year old self can manage this one, about Tom’s best friend Huckleberry.

2. Moby Dick

Honestly, thought this was a type of pudding. Actually, that might Spotted Dick. Either way Rory mentions having read this novel in episode one so I’m thinking of giving it a go. In March (yes, don’t worry about this being at all quick).

3. Madame Bovary

I had the spelling of this so wrong when I jotted it down while watching the episode. It took me a lot of googling to wrangle a novel from my note and then I cross referenced it to the actual list (this is on there so I think I’m right).

I’ve never heard of this novel before and it’s originally in French so have no idea what to expect. But hey I was expecting some curve balls in this!

Let’s Compare Notes

So there you have this impossible challenge. Have you seen the list? How many have you read? Have you read any of the ones listed above? Would love to hear your opinion in the comments section!