Every Book Rory Reads In Gilmore Girls, By Season

Seasons 3 & 4: Growth & New Beginnings

Seasons 3 and 4 of Gilmore Girls focused on Rory finding herself and following her heart. Instead of settling with her ex-boyfriend Dean Forester, Rory chased her feelings and started dating Jess Mariano. However, their relationship was short-lived and Jess wasn’t right for Rory until season 6. Even more transformative, Rory graduated from high school at the end of season 3, bringing a new world to her in season 4 when Rory went to Yale instead of Harvard.

RELATED: Jess Wasn’t Right For Rory Until Gilmore Girls Season 6

The books Rory was seen reading or holding on Gilmore Girls mirrored her time at Yale, a cathartic and eye-opening experience. Rory was seen reading In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust in season 3, episode 17, “A Tales of Poes and Fire,” which is relatable to Rory’s upbringing; a privileged narrator who grew up in a wealthy area who questioned their place in the world. Even if not specifically noted, the books Rory read were telling.

• Europe Through the Back Door
  by Rick Steves (Season 3, Episode 13)

• The Holy Barbarians
  by Lawrence Lipton (Season 3, Episode 14)

• In Search of Lost Time
  by Marcel Proust (Season 3, Episode 17)

• Atonement
  by Ian McEwan (Season 4, Episode 3)

• Northanger Abbey
  by Jane Austen (Season 4, Episode 4)

• The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
  by Ernest Hemingway (Season 4, Episode 5)

• Tender is the Night
  by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Season 4, Episode 5)

Seasons 5 & 6: Rory’s Reckless Phase

Rory may have been sweet and agreeable in the first four seasons of Gilmore Girls, but that changed in seasons 5 and 6. Like Beverly Cleary’s A Girl from Yamhill, Rory’s colorful childhood with a fun and quirky mom made her present hard to handle when she faced adversity. Outside of having an affair with a married ex-boyfriend, Rory made things worse when she stole a yacht with, arguably, her best boyfriend Logan Huntzberger on Gilmore Girls. With her life seemingly in turmoil by the end of the season, it imitated the sadness Joan Didion felt in The Year of Magical Thinking — another book she read.

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After Rory was arrested on Gilmore Girls, Rory’s mother Lorelai didn’t recognize her daughter at the start of season 6 after she dropped out of college and dated someone as privileged as the Gilmores. Not realizing the path she was on, Rory got a hard taste of reality when her ex-boyfriend Jess came back into her life and made her realize what she gave up to be a stay-at-home wife like her grandmother, respectfully. Before the end of the Gilmore Girls season, Rory felt like herself again, re-enrolled in school, and continued reading her favorites while her boyfriend graduated from Yale and moved to London.

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  by Mark Haddon (Season 5, Episode 6)

• A Girl from Yamhill
  by Beverly Cleary (Season 5, Episode 9)

• Subsect
  by Jess Mariano (Season 6, Episode 8)

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering
  Genius by Dave Eggers (Season 5, Episode 15)

• Leaves of Grass
  by Walt Whitman (Season 5, Episode 17)

• The Year of Magical Thinking
  by Joan Didion (Season 6, Episode 15)

Season 7: New Beginnings & A Bright Future

Season 7 was the final season of Gilmore Girls and the most important (although arguably, season 7 was one of Gilmore Girls’ worst seasons). While the storylines for the other characters were just as important, all eyes were on Rory as she was on the road to graduating from Yale and entering the “real” world. In season 7, episode 3, “Lorelai’s First Cotillion,” Rory was seen reading Sexus: The Rosy Crucifixion by Henry Miller. This novel might be the closest to Rory’s life as it’s about Miller’s life as a struggling writer who fell in love and left for a new city and beginning.

Like Miller, Rory graduated from Yale and started a journey out West as a reporter for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Her dream of traveling and becoming a writer came true, even if her relationship didn’t pan out the way she envisioned. The hundreds of books Rory read and lost herself in got her where she needed to be at such a young age. After two planned Gilmore Girls spinoffs didn’t happen, fans finally found out what became of Rory’s future in the revival, Gilmore Girls:A Year in the Life.

• In Cold Blood
  by Truman Capote (Season 7, Episode 1)

• Sexus
  :
  The Rosy Crucifixion
  by Henry Miller (Season 7, Episode 3)

RELATED: How Much Time Passes Between Gilmore Girls & A Year In The Life

The Revival: A Shocking Twist And A Future No One Saw Coming

In 2016, Netflix introduced A Year in the Life with fun cameos and the original cast. The revival came with four episodes, covering all four seasons. Rory was now in her 30’s, back in Stars Hollow, and unsure where her life was taking her now that she was out of work and homeless. More importantly, Rory’s future wasn’t far off from the protagonist in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina — a book she read many times throughout Gilmore Girls.

In the novel, Anna enters an affair with an officer in the army that only thrives when the two are away from home. Once they go back home, life is altered for the worse. A similar storyline followed Rory. When her professional life blew up in flames, the only thing going for Rory was, sadly, an affair with Logan, who was engaged. Although Anna Karenina has been referenced throughout Gilmore Girls, it was the perfect book for her to be reading by the pool in “Summer.” As always, Rory’s love of reading took her into another world, especially when she uttered those final four words: she was pregnant.

• Aeschylus
  
  (“Spring”)

• Anna Karenina
  by Leo Tolstoy (“Summer”)