The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge: Twenty-five years begins today

This summer my sister and I discovered a link to a Buzzfeed quiz asking “How Many Books From ‘Gilmore Girls’ Have You Read?” so of course we had to take the test. I scored a lowly 37. Something had to be done about this. So we started a book club. Each month we will read one book off the list that neither of us had read before. Not counting my existing 37 that leaves me with 301. Without any supplemental reading that will take 25 years. We are still young right?

After looking more carefully at the list we discovered that it was not actually every book that Rory had read over the course of the entire series but every book that was ever mentioned. Some were ridiculous like Robert’s Rules Of Order, which nobody who isn’t chairing important meetings or Model United Nations competitions would actually want to read cover to cover as are the seriously outdated travel books. Others were downright appealing and on my to read list anyways. Then there are the ones that will be torturous like Finnegans Wake. My sister has never to my knowledge read any James Joyce. I on the other hand am a seasoned veteran of attempting to wade through his prose and plan to snicker repeatedly at her string of bewildered emails. She has me beat on the Russians.

The first book is Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Unlike others who have undertaken the Challenge we have decide to forgo the numbering systems for the oh that one has a cool cover system. I am starting it today and have nine days to read it. After that Kate Chopin is waiting impatiently for me on the hold shelf of my local library.