Since we all seem to have a lot more time on our hands than ever before with COVID, it seems a good time as any to whittle down a book list. As a lifetime Gilmore Girls fan I stumbled upon a list of apparently every book they mention in all the episodes and this bibliophile is humbled. This blog post is a list, just a list of these books. 🙂 I highlighted the ones I have read. Instead of inspiring me to read, this list is shaming me – what have I been doing with my life?
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I can receive some compensation.
JMF
UPDATED 7.4.2021
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
- Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
- The Art of Fiction by Henry James
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Babe by Dick King-Smith
- Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
- The Bhagavad Gita
- The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
- Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
- A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Brick Lane by Monica Ali
- Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
- Candide by Voltaire
- The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
- Carrie by Stephen King
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
- The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
- Christine by Stephen King – SEEN THE MOVIE
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
- The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
- The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
- A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
- Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
- The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
- Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Père
- Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller
- Cujo by Stephen King
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
- David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin, M.D.
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
- Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
- Deenie by Judy Blume
- The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
- The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
- The Divine Comedy by Dante (get the Mark Musa translations in you can)
- The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Don Quijote by Cervantes
- Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry
- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
- Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
- Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
- Eloise by Kay Thompson
- Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
- Ethics by Spinoza
- Europe through the Back Door by Rick Steves – I’ve read enough Rick Steves to count this in my opinion!
- Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
- Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Extravagance by Gary Krist
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
- The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
- Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
- Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
- Fletch by Gregory McDonald
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
- The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
- Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers – SEEN BOTH MOVIES
- Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
- Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
- George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
- Gidget by Frederick Kohner
- Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
- The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
- The Graduate by Charles Webb – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Group by Mary McCarthy
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare – SEEN THE PLAY
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
- Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
- Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
- Henry V by William Shakespeare
- High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
- Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
- The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
- House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
- The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
- How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
- How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
- Howl by Allen Ginsberg
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo – SEEN THE MOVIE & THE PLAY
- The Iliad by Homer – I’VE TAUGHT IT THE PAST 6 YEARS, STILL HAVEN’T READ IT
- I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- Inferno by Dante
- Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
- Ironweed by William J. Kennedy
- It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
- Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
- The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
- Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
- The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
- The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
- The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
- The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
- The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- The Love Story by Erich Segal
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- The Manticore by Robertson Davies
- Marathon Man by William Goldman
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
- Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
- Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
- The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
- The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
- Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
- A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
- Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
- A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall – SEEN THE MOVIE
- My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
- My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
- My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
- Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
- My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
- The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
- Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
- New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
- The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
- Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
- The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
- Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
- Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- Old School by Tobias Wolff
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
- Oracle Night by Paul Auster
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- Othello by Shakespeare – SEEN THE PLAY
- Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
- The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
- Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- A Passage to India by E.M. Forster – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
- Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi – in Italian no less!
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs by McNeil and Gillian McCain
- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
- The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
- The Portable Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche
- The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Property by Valerie Martin
- Pushkin: A Biography by T.J. Binyon
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
- Quattrocento by James Mckean
- A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
- Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
- Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
- Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
- The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J.R.R. Tolkien
- R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
- Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
- Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
- Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
- A Room with a View by E.M. Forster – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
- Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
- Sanctuary by William Faulkner
- Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
- Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
- The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
- The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
- Selected Hotels of Europe
- Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
- Sexus by Henry Miller
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Shane by Jack Schaefer
- The Shining by Stephen King – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
- S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Small Island by Andrea Levy
- Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
- Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
- Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
- The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
- Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
- The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
- Songbook by Nick Hornby
- The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
- Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
- The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
- A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
- Stuart Little by E. B. White
- Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
- Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
- Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber – SEEN THE MOVIE
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
- Time and Again by Jack Finney
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
- Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom – SEEN THE MOVIE
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Unless by Carol Shields
- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann – SEEN THE MOVIE
- The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
- Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau
- Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten – SEEN THE MOVIE
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
- What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
- What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
- When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
- Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
- The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
