Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Rory Gilmore Book Club



It took me a long time to suspend my cynicism and sit down and watch The Gilmore Girls. Once I finally did, I loved it. Yes, it often made me cringe at the cheesiness or roll my eyes at the sheer unbelievability (is that a word) of some of the plots, but the script was, for the most part, sharp and funny and smart.

One of the things that stands out is Rory's obsession with books. Again, it's highly unlikely that she would have been able to read as much as she did, but we were also expected to believe that she could eat a burger and fries every day, never exercise, and still weigh 98 pounds. However, if you're willing to move past that, Rory's love of books is one of the things that made the show so unique. Do you ever see Serena van der Woodsen curl up with a good book on Gossip Girl? How about Brenda and Dylan discussing the finer points of Kerouac on Beverly Hills, 90210 (ok, that's a dated reference, but you get where I'm going with this)?

According to this list, Rory read over 175 books over the seven seasons of the show, spanning from The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood to Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter to Speak, Memory. There are also Rory Gilmore book clubs on sites like Goodreads and Shelfari. It sort of makes me want to start my own...or at least conquer all of the books on the list myself.

6 comments:

  1. rory is my hero! :) i love watching GG, it never gets old... despite the fact that lorelai seems to become more annoying as time goes by... i will always love rory. book nerds unite! :)

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  2. Yes, after a lot of protest and hesitation.... you caved. Maybe that means you should listen to me about more things, lady.

    Also, I love this list. It should become our new goal to read it in its entirety.... in 7 years time. So, by 2016, it better be read. If Rory can do it, so can we!

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  3. oh man, thank you. their ability to eat so much but yet still be skinny as twigs was and is my biggest problem with the show. i mean, i can suspend my belief enough to let myself fantasize that towns like theirs really do exist in real life, but the whole eating thing is way too ridiculous.

    but getting past that...so are these books that rory actually mentioned as reading in the show? impressive. and really nerdy.

    <3 gilmore girls forever.

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  4. I have wanted to belong in a book club for a while now. You should start one.

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  5. Book lists are a great idea...people are always looking for some guidance when it comes to what to read...

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  6. Gilmore Girls is one of my favorite shows ever, and one of the things that drew me to it was that Rory was a reader and that it was always presented as a postitive thing.

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