Someone challenged me to a duel.
It wasn’t a duel with swords, but that’s what it felt like. My cousin challenged me to see how many books I had read from a list of 100 African-American authors. The list was hosted on a reading challenge website and while I was delving into it, I stumbled upon The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. 
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might know Gilmore Girls was one of my favorite series of all time. Although my favorite character was Lorelai (the mom), I considered myself more like the daughter, Rory, a great student/perfect child/best friend to everyone who knew her, who made time for reading even though she had a hectic school schedule and was preparing to attend an Ivy League college.
Over the course of the show (which ran for seven seasons), Rory’s character was pictured reading or holding or heard discussing 339 books, all listed here.
The reading challenge is for you to see how many of them you’ve read, and maybe to read all (or most) of them – perhaps over the course of eight years, like Rory did 🙂
I wonder how many of the books Alexis Bledel (the actress who played Rory) read but that’s another question for another time.
Since I first posted the challenge on my Instagram page, lots of my fellow readers have weighed in, wanting to try the challenge so I decided to post it here in a list version that you can copy and check off as you read them.
When I first saw the challenge, I had only read 37 of the 339. Since then, I’ve added a couple of titles. I’d love to hear your number. How many of these books have you read?
- 1984
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Alice In Wonderland
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- An American Tragedy
- Angela’s Ashes
- Anna Karenina
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
- The Archidamian War
- The Art of Fiction
- The Art of War
- As I Lay Dying
- Atonement (novel)
- Autobiography of a Face
- The Awakening
- Babe: The Gallant Pig
- Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
- Bel Canto
- The Bell Jar
- Beloved, by Toni Morrison
- Beowulf
- Bhagavad Gita
- The Bielski Brothers
- Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women
- A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays
- Brave New World
- Brick Lane
- Brigadoon
- Candide
- The Canterbury Tales
- Carrie
- Catch-22
- The Catcher in the Rye
- Charlotte’s Web
- The Children’s Hour
- Christine
- A Christmas Carol
- A Clockwork Orange
- The Code of the Woosters
- The Collected Stories
- The Comedy of Errors
- The Complete Novels of Dawn Powell
- The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton
- Complete Stories of Dorothy Parker
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Cousin Bette
- Crime and Punishment
- The Crimson Petal and the White
- The Crucible
- Cujo by Stephen King
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
- Daughter of Fortune
- David and Lisa
- David Copperfield
- The Da Vinci Code
- Dead Souls
- Demons
- Death of a Salesman
- Deenie
- The Devil in the White City
- The Dirt
- The Divine Comedy
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- Don Quixote
- Driving Miss Daisy on Broadway
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
- The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
- Ella Minnow Pea
- Eloise
- Emily the Strange
- Emma
- Empire Falls
- Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective
- Ethan Frome
- Ethics
- Europe Through the Back Door
- Eva Luna
- Everything Is Illuminated
- Extravagance
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (1953)
- Fahrenheit 9/11
- The Fall of the Athenian Empire
- Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- Fiddler on the Roof
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven
- Finnegans
- Fletch
- Flowers for Algernon
- The Fortress of Solitude
- The Fountainhead
- Frankenstein
- Franny and Zooey
- Freaky Friday
- Galapagos
- Gender Trouble
- George W. Bushisms
- Gidget
- Girl, Interrupted
- The Gnostic Gospels
- The Godfather
- The God of Small Things
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- Gone with the Wind
- The Good Soldier
- Letters to Judy
- The Graduate
- The Grapes of Wrath
- The Great Gatsby
- Great Expectations
- The Group
- Hamlet
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- Heart of Darkness
- Helter Skelter
- Henry IV, Part I
- Henry IV, Part II
- Henry V
- High Fidelity
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Holidays on Ice
- The Holy Barbarians
- House of Sand and Fog (novel)
- The House of the Spirits
- How to Breathe Underwater
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
- How the Light Gets In
- Howl
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- The Iliad
- I’m With the Band
- In Cold Blood
- Inferno
- Inherit the Wind
- Ironweed
- It Takes a Village
- Jane Eyre
- The Joy Luck Club
- Julius Caesar
- The Celebrated Jumping Frog
- The Jungle
- Just a Couple of Days
- The Kitchen Boy
- Kitchen Confidential
- The Kite Runner
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- The Last Empire
- Leaves of Grass
- The Legend of Bagger Vance
- Less Than Zero
- Letters to a Young Poet
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
- Life of Pi
- Little Dorrit
- The Little Locksmith
- The Little Match Girl
- Little Women
- Living History
- Lord of the Flies
- The Lottery
- The Lovely Bones
- Love Story
- Macbeth
- Madame Bovary
- The Manticore
- Marathon Man
- The Master and Margarita
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
- Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
- Me Talk Pretty One Day
- The Meaning of Consuelo
- Mencken’s Chrestomathy
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- The Metamorphosis
- Middlesex
- The Miracle Worker
- Moby Dick
- The Mojo Collection
- Moliere: A Biography
- A Monetary History of the United States
- Monsieur Proust
- A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister
- A Moveable Feast
- Mrs. Dalloway
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- My Lai 4
- My Life as Author and Editor
- My Life in Orange
- Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe
- My Sister’s Keeper
- The Naked and the Dead
- The Name of the Rose
- The Namesake
- The Nanny Diaries
- Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature
- New Poems of Emily Dickinson
- The New Way Things Work
- Nickel and Dimed
- Night
- Northanger Abbey
- The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism
- Novels 1930-1942
- Notes of a Dirty Old Man
- Of Mice and Men
- Old School
- On the Road
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- The Opposite of Fate
- Oracle Night
- Oryx and Crake
- Othello
- Our Mutual Friend
- The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War
- Out of Africa
- The Outsiders
- A Passage to India
- The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Peyton Place
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Pigs at the Trough
- Pinocchio
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
- The Polysyllabic Spree
- The Portable Dorothy Parker
- The Portable Nietzche
- The Price of Loyalty
- Pride and Prejudice
- Property
- Pushkin: A Biography
- Pygmalion
- Quattrocento
- A Quiet Storm
- Rapunzel
- The raven and other poems
- The Razor’s Edge
- Reading Lolita in Tehran
- Rebecca
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
- The Red Tent
- Rescuing Patty Hearst
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- R Is for Ricochet
- Rita Hayworth
- Robert’s Rules of Order
- Roman Fever
- Romeo and Juliet
- A Room of One’s Own
- A Room with a View
- Rosemary’s Baby
- The Rough Guide to Europe
- Sacred Time
- Sanctuary
- Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Daisy Miller
- The Scarecrow of Oz
- The Scarlet Letter
- Seabiscuit: An American Legend
- The Second Sex
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Secrets of the Flesh
- Selected Hotels of Europe
- The Selected Letters of Dawn Powell
- Sense and Sensibility
- A Separate Peace
- Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
- Sexus
- The Shadow of the Wind
- Shane
- The Shining
- Siddhartha
- S Is for Silence
- Slaughter House Five
- Small Island
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro (book)
- Snow White and Rose Red
- Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
- The Song of Names
- Song of the Simple Truth
- The Song Reader
- Songbook
- The Sonnets
- Sonnets from the Portuguese
- Sophie’s Choice
- The Sound and the Fury
- Speak, Memory
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- The Story of My Life
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Stuart Little
- The Sun Also Rises
- Swann’s Way
- Swimming with Giants
- Sybil
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Tender Is the Night
- Terms of Endearment
- Time and Again
- The Time Traveler’s Wife
- To Have and Have Not
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Richard III
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- The Trial
- The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters
- Truth and Beauty
- Tuesdays with Morrie
- Ulysses
- The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Unless
- Valley of the Dolls
- The Vanishing Newspaper
- Vanity Fair
- The Velvet Underground and Nico
- The Virgin Suicides
- Waiting for Godot
- Walden
- Bambi
- War and Peace
- We Owe You Nothing
- What Colour Is Your Parachute?
- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
- When the Emperor Was Divine
- Who Moved My Cheese?
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
- The Wizard of Oz
- Wuthering Heights
- The Yearling
- The Year of Magical Thinking
Please comment below with your number.
I think I have read 14. hehe I’ve got some catching up to do! 🙂 XO – Alexandra
Simply Alexandra: My Favorite Things
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I love a good reading list! I’ve read 42 so far and there’s a lot on there that I hope to read soon 🙂
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There are 43 I read (start to finish) and 3 I tried…but just couldn’t get through. 🙂
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I’ve read 73 of them…. but I was homeschooled and basically spent the last half of college and the first few years out of college learning to function as a normal human being, which is way more important than reading every good book ever. So those 73 books could be considered to have come at somewhat a high cost. But don’t tell my mom that, because she would be really upset. ;P
Also, just to continue my “every list isn’t necessarily a helpful list” rant from last time… (haha) I didn’t love or even like ALL of the 73 books that I’ve read from this list… Heart of Darkness was pretty much just upsetting, and Beowulf was one you just keep trying to process the words halfway before turning the page because it’s so archaic (or maybe that was just my translation…)… I guess you could argue that there is something to be gained from any reading, but I also figure that there is a limited amount of time in my life, and a limited number of books to be read, so I’d rather they be uplifting or with clear reality-checks / insights for me to benefit from… which might be a completely spoil-sport attitude when here people are just trying to have a good time with a fun Gilmore Girls list. Oops!!!
😉 Reading over the list was helpful in a “oh, I’ve heard great things about that one, I should check it out!” way, and several of my all-time favorite books ARE on the list, so I’m not totally a hater….
Looking forward to hearing about your reading adventures this year, and your book recommendations!!
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Haha. I love your comment, Sarah and I absolutely agree with you. There are books on this list that I don’t plan to read just because they’re not how I want to spend my time. I am not a fan of stories featuring blood and gore and darkness and vampires. I’ve read one Stephen King novel about 15 years ago and don’t plan to read another. That’s just not entertaining or uplifting or enjoyable to me.
But some of the “important” books are indeed listed here – like I think everyone (and definitely every college student) should read 1984 just because Orwell and the Orwellian society is mentioned so often in literary and academic circles.
Thanks so much for sharing your views. And no, I won’t tell your mom if you don’t tell mine – I wasn’t homeschooled but my mom is a teacher and supervised my education. I think she would be disappointed I’ve only read 30-something from this list.
What are you reading now? And is there anything you saw on the list that made you say, “Oh, I should definitely go read that soon?”
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I agree, it is important to have a shared culture of books and ideas… and I actually kept thinking about your post and that I needed to come back and clarify… I DO read silly, fun, fluffy books… not everything I read is insightful or profoundly uplifting… but YES, completely agree with what you said that it is all about choosing how to spend our time. 🙂
I’ve been rereading a couple of books about dog training because we might be adopting our second soon… and also a mystery novel called Maisie Dobbs… totally fluffy and fun. I also started All The Light You Cannot See which was recommended by a couple of blogger buddies, but my e-library check-out expired (*sigh*) so I’m waiting to finish it… the beginning was amazing anyway! I’ll let you know about the rest once I get my hands on it again…
From the list, I definitely need to read Beloved! And The Year of Magical Thinking… and at least TRY to read The Sound and the Fury, but no guarantees I’ll finish that one from what I’ve heard. ;P Any from the list you would recommend to me as must-read??
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I’ve read 32 of them. (If “The Dirt” is the one by Motley Crue, then I’ve read 34, but I’m doubting that’s the book Rory was reading.) I have another 10 or so, I SHOULD have read in school, but chose Cliff’s Notes instead. Shame on me, I know. I swear I’ve tried to read Our Mutual Friend on 3 separate occasions because it is a girlfriend’s favourite, and she gave me a copy…but I can’t do it. Dickens and I don’t get along. I have two of these that I’ve picked up at a secondhand bookstore throughout my adventures. They are sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read: The Secret Life of Bees and The House of Sand and Fog.
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62, there are a lot on the list that are on my ‘to be read’ shelf.
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Good for you, Craig. About how old were you when you read the first one on this list?
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I want to say 8 so yeah I’ve had a lot of time
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Interesting. What was the first book? Sorry if I’m prying. I’m just curious.
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Mine was probably Anne Frank: Diary of a young girl. I was probably about 8 too. Either that or Shane which was the first big-person novel that I ever owned.
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Charlotte’s Web for me. Found it in a desk one day in class and read it over the following few weeks. First ‘big person’ book would probably be the Lord of the rings ones on the list a few years later followed by Stephen King and moving up through high school etc.
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I love the progression. I’ve never actually read Charlotte’s Web. Gotta remedy that ASAP.
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