The Real Rory Book List: Season Two

In all of my vast research I have come to the conclusion that it matters not (much) if Rory was seen reading a book on Gilmore Girls or if she referenced it in passing. Let's be honest: an avid reader like RG would have read everything she could get her hands on. However, it is nice to know where the GG references come from. Comments by Emily, Louise, or Paris are not great indicators of Rory's literary prowess.

However, this season I have also learned that "the list" is made up in larger part of the references made to literary works than in the books Rory and other characters are seen reading. This makes not sense.

It is interesting to note in which episodes there are a large number of books referenced and read and which are suffering from literary famine. What can we learn from this?

Thus we begin season two.

SEASON TWO

Sadie, Sadie (2.1)

• Cujo, Stephen King – Referenced by Max.

Rory: A little deco. [Lorelai pants and barks like a dog] That sounds great. Uh, good going. She's gonna be ecstatic. Max: She's right there with you isn't she? Rory: What? No. Max: No, I thought I heard her bark. Rory: No, that's just a wild jackal that hangs out here sometimes. Max: Mm hmm. Put Cujo on the phone please. Rory: One sec. [hands phone to Lorelai] Here boy.

• Mencken's Chrestomathy, H.R. Mencken –

Hammers and Veils (2.2)

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain – "He likes me. He's perfect. I'll never see him again. You'll read about it in my novel, A Connecticut Yankee in Pusan." – Lane

Red Light on the Wedding Night (2.3)

• Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis – Probably read by Lorelai.

Rory: All you have to do is pick out a quote for the front page, and I'll print 'em up. [shows Lorelai the sample invitations]

Lorelai: Okay. Um… "What is love? It is the morning and the evening star." Ugh.

Rory: Sinclair Lewis.

Lorelai: Sinclair Sappy Lewis.

• "The Eve of Waterloo," Lord Byron – Not put on any Gilmore Girl book lists, probably because it's a poem, but Shakespeare's plays aren't books either. Rory uses a quote Byron's poem as a potential love quote for Lorelai's weding invitations.

LORELAI: "And all went merry as a marriage bell. But hush! Hark! A deep sound strikes like a rising knell!" What is it with poetry? RORY: Lord Byron. LORELAI: Byron and Lewis, together again.

• Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, Judith Thurman – Mistakenly put under season 2, episode 2 on the Rory Gilmore book list.

RORY: Do you need a book? LORELAI: Um, that Colette biography. RORY: I lost your place in it.

LORELAI: That's okay. I have to start over anyway.

• The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, José Saramago – Not on the list.

• The Optimist’s Daughter, Eudora Welty – Not on the list.

The Road Trip to Harvard (2.4)

• Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll – "Okay, she's named the place after an Alice in Wonderland character. This is my worst nightmare." – Lorelai

• Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Album; Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson –

Rory: Thirteen million volumes? I've read like, what, three hundred books in my entire life and I'm already sixteen? Do you know how long it would take me to read thirteen million books?

Lorelai: But honey, you don't have to read every one of them. "Tuesday's with Morrie?" Skip that. "Who Moved My Cheese?" Just stuff you already know.

• The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius – Someone read it, but we don't know that it was Rory.

PROFESSOR: . . . had given birth. Reckon on everything, expect everything. What sort of thought is this? STUDENT: Depressing? PROFESSOR: On the surface, maybe. But go underneath. What is he postulating beyond fatalism?

• Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf – Rory is reading this on the couch at her grandparents' house while Lorelai tries to guess what Emily got her as a wedding present.

Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy (2.5)

• Howl, Allen Ginsberg – "Jess looks at the copy on Rory's bookshelf and when she offers to lend it to him, he says he doesn't read much. The following day he returns the 'borrowed' book to her having made his own annotations in the margins."

• Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens – Rory most likely would have read this to know about the character she references.

JESS: Goodnight, Rory. RORY: Goodnight, Dodger. JESS: Dodger? RORY: Figure it out. JESS: ...Oliver Twist.

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson – From Rory's Book Club: "One of the books that Jess brings to Stars Hollow. I guess Jess and Dean had more in common than just their affections for Rory."; On the Road, Jack Kerouac –

• Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King –

LORELAI: Right. So what kind of trouble has he gotten into? LUKE: Ah, just kid stuff, you know, staying out late, getting rowdy. I don't know exactly.

LORELAI: Well, you might want to find out. Ask a couple of subtle questions, you know, has he seen The Shawshank Redemption, did the setting seem homey to him? Stuff like that.

• Selected Letters of Dawn Powell : 1913-1965, Dawn Powell – From Black, White and Read books: Rory is sitting on a bench outside of a Chilton classroom, reading while she waits for the first meeting of The Franklin to begin. She's reading this book.

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain –

TAYLOR: That's right. She's breaking the rules, and people who break the rules end up very lonely with no friends because they have become society's outcasts.

LORELAI: Planning on burning a little Huck Finn after lunch, Taylor?

TAYLOR: Excuse me?

• The Godfather: Book 1, Mario Puzo – Probably referencing the movie.

Luke: Look, all he needs is to be around someone who's not a selfish basketcase, who will give him a little space, who will treat him like a man. Lorelai: Maybe you should think about this. Luke: There's nothing to think about. He's family. You take care of family, period. Lorelai: Yes, I respect that, but what if he turns out to be Fredo?

• The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion, Jim Irvin –

LANE: Well, I found the greatest record store in the world. It's ten minutes from your school and I'm wondering how much you love me. RORY: Address. LANE: Record Breaker Incorporated, 2453 Berlin Turnpike. RORY: Got it. Place your order now. LANE: Okay, Charles Mingus, "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady." LORELAI: Mm. RORY: Right. LANE: The Sonics, Here are the Sonics. RORY: Burn me a copy. Next. LANE: MC5, Kick Out the Jams. Fairport Convention, Leige and Lief. BeeGees, Odessa. RORY: BeeGees, really? LANE: Well, Mojo says. RORY: So it must be true.

• Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy; The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky –

Presenting Lorelai Gilmore (2.6)

• The Compact Oxford English Dictionary – Christopher finally gives her the book he wanted to buy her in season 1 but couldn't because his credit card was declined.

• Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe – Ummm...? Does that even count as a reference?

[Emily and Richard come back down the steps. Emily reads from a stack of invitations.]

EMILY: The Hartford Zoological Silent Auction, the Mark Twain House Restoration Fund luncheon, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Literacy Auction.

• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee – "Lorelai refers to a bickering Emily and Richard as George and Martha."

Like Mother, Like Daughter (2.7)

• Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir –

• Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Nancy Milford; The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner; The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000, Gore Vidal; The Collected Short Stories, Eudora Welty –

LORELAI: Just take your schoolbooks and leave some of the other books. RORY: I need all of my other books. LORELAI: You don't need all of these. RORY: I think I do. LORELAI: Edna St. Vincent Milay? RORY: That's my bus book. LORELAI: Uh huh. What's the Faulkner? RORY: My other bus book. LORELAI: So just take one bus book. RORY: No, the Milay is a biography, and sometimes if I'm on the bus and I pull out a biography and I think to myself, 'Well, I don't really feel like reading about a person's life right now' then I'll switch to the novel, and then sometimes if I'm not into the novel, I'll switch back.

LORELAI: Hmm... What is the Gore Vidal? RORY: Oh, that's my lunch book. LORELAI: Uh huh. So lose the Vidal or the Faulkner. You don't need two novels. RORY: Vidal's essays.

LORELAI: Uh huh. But the Eudora Welty's not essays or a biography. RORY: Right. LORELAI: So it's another novel, lose it! RORY: Unh uh. It's short stories.

• Snow White and Rose Red, Grimm Brothers –

RORY: The whole school apparently knows about it. FRANCIE: Well, no one has proof. It's just folklore. IVY: Like Snow White and Rose Red. FRANCIE: Or Mariah Carey's crackup.

• The Complete Poems, Anne Sexton –

FRANCIE: The historical bell of Chilton, 120 years old. Every member of the Puffs has stood here under the cover of night to pledge her lifelong devotion to us. 'I pledge myself to the Puffs, loyal I'll always be, a P to start, 2 F's at the end, and a U sitting in between.' RORY: Anne Sexton, right?

• The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Well –

RORY: And the next thing I know, I'm being pulled out of my bed in the middle of the night and I'm blindfolded and then before I know it, I end up here with the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, reciting poetry and lighting candles, and now I'm gonna be suspended because I was trying to do what you told me? What's fair about that?

• The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000, Gore Vidal –

The Ins and Outs of Inns (2.8)

• Moliere: A Biography, Hobart Chatfield Taylor – ?

• The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger – A reference to a character in a book indicates that the referencer has read it. Usually. And in the case of Rory, I'm willing to bet always.

RORY: And now Luke's a pariah and it's all because of you! What a shock, you don't care about any of this. JESS: I didn't say that. RORY: Go. I'm tired of talking to you. JESS: Fine. RORY: You care nothing about Luke and his feelings! JESS: Got a second wind, huh? RORY: All he does is stick up for you and all you do is make his life harder. I guess that's what you have to do when you're trying to be Holden Caulfield but I think it stinks. Luke has done a lot for my mom and a lot for me, and I don't like to see him attacked. Okay, second wind over.

• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee –

RORY: You did it. The whole town knows you did it. They had a meeting about it. JESS: You actually went to that bizarro town meeting? Those things are so To Kill a Mockingbird.

Run Away, Little Boy (2.9)

• Macbeth, William Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare; The Tragedy of Richard III, William Shakespeare –

TEACHER: Believe it or not, Shakespeare probably never intended his plays to be read by students sitting at decks more concerned with getting A's than with the fate of Macbeth. His plays were meant to be experienced, lived. So with that in mind, together with my third period Shakespeare, you'll be split up into five groups and each group will assume responsibility for one act of Romeo and Juliet, which will be performed a week from Sunday. You will nominate the director, you will cast the scene, rehearse the scene, and interpret the scene in your own individual manner. Last year, we did Richard the Third. One group did their scene as the Mafiosi. Another set theirs during the Roman Empire. And my favorite, the climactic last scene was set during the final days of the Sonny and Cher show. Just remember, whatever interpretation you choose should highlight the themes you see in the scene. And if the love of the Bard's language still doesn't inspire you, remember this will be fifty percent of your final grade.

• The Shining, Stephen King –

LORELAI: I'm back! RORY: Kitchen! LORELAI: Mmkay, I couldn't make up my mind so I got The Shining and Bringing Up Baby. Now, I know you're thinking, one's a movie about a homicidal parent and the other one's...

The Bracebridge Dinner (2.10)

• The Iliad, Homer – Read by Paris...many times.

PARIS: Well, my parents are out of town, so my Portuguese nanny will make dinner and then I'll either get back to reading the Iliad or we'll play Monopoly. I crush her every time.

• The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan –

LORELAI: They're here. RORY: Who? LORELAI: The Joy-less Luck Club.

• The Shining, Stephen King – This book has yet to be referenced.

SOOKIE: How can you stay so calm about this? LORELAI: There's nothing we can do about it. RORY: I can't believe they got snowed in. LORELAI: All that work, all that extra help we hired. Oh well. At least they paid for it already. We didn't lose any money. SOOKIE: Yeah I guess. You know, I could still make up the dinner for the three of us. RORY: Yeah, but then it would be like the three of us, all alone in the dining room. LORELAI: It would be like The Shining, except instead of Jack Nicholson, we have Rune.

Secrets and Loans (2.11)

• Essentials of Economics, 3rd ed., Bradley R. Schiller –

• Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell – "Lorelai does a Vivien Leigh impersonation and speaks of Tara." Could very well have been the movie.

• Gustave Flaubert – The list calls this Madame Bovary, but this could have been any one of Flaubert's works.

RICHARD: You know what else I noticed? RORY: What? RICHARD: A first edition Flaubert, mint condition, shoved behind several of my Churchill biographies. RORY: No! RICHARD: Interested? RORY: My life is good. RICHARD: Follow me. LORELAI: Ooh Dad, see if you can find a pair of the new Chanel patent leather pirate boots stuffed back behind your Churchills.

• Nancy Drew Mysteries, Carolyn Keene – Referenced by Madeline.

LOUISE: I just thought we really connected the other day in the supply closet.

MADELINE: Boys. A Nancy Drew mystery.

• The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000, Gore Vidal –

• The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, José Saramago – Not on the list.

Richard in Stars Hollow (2.12)

• Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry – ?

• Gustave Flaubert; biographies of Winston Churchill – I'm not sure why Madame Bovary was the book selected for this episode on Rory's Book List when Flaubert wrote several other works. We shall probably never know which one Richard is referencing here.

RICHARD: You know what else I noticed? RORY: What? RICHARD: A first edition Flaubert, mint condition, shoved behind several of my Churchill biographies. RORY: No! RICHARD: Interested? RORY: My life is good. RICHARD: Follow me. LORELAI: Ooh Dad, see if you can find a pair of the new Chanel patent leather pirate boots stuffed back behind your Churchills.

• Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin – Another reference to the movie. The Gilmore girls certainly have their favorites.

RORY: Ooh, we could do a Ruth Gordon film festival. Harold and Maude, Rosemary’s Baby, and that really great episode of "Taxi".

• The Scarecrow of Oz, L. Frank Baum; Summer of Fear, T. Jefferson Parker; Contact, Carl Sagan – The second two works didn't make it on the List even though "I noticed in episode 12 of season 2, Summer of Fear by T. Jefferson Parker, Contact by Carl Sagan, The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L Baum are in her dresser drawer when she's showing her grandpa her book collection."

A-Tisket, A-Tasket (2.13)

• The Children's Hour, Lillian Hellman – There's no evidence that anyone on the show read this, which is a huge relief.

RORY: No, I just went to get some pizza and I, uh, wandered around the bookstore for a little while. Here. LORELAI: What’s this? RORY: You said you wanted to read The Children’s Hour. LORELAI: I did? RORY: The other night when we were watching Julia, and Jane Fonda was playing Lillian Hellman. LORELAI: Oh yeah, and I made the Hellmann’s mayonnaise joke.

• The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand; Ernest Hemingway –

RORY: Ten.

JESS: Ten?

RORY: Yeah but I didn’t understand a word of it, so I had to reread it when I was fifteen.

JESS: I’ve yet to make it through it.

RORY: Really? Try it. The Fountainhead is classic.

JESS: Yeah, but Ayn Rand is a political nut.

RORY: Yeah, but nobody could write a forty page monologue the way that she could.

JESS: Okay, tomorrow I will try again, and you will...

RORY: Give the painful Ernest Hemingway another chance. Yes, I promise.

JESS: You know, Ernest only has lovely things to say about you.

It Should've Been Lorelai (2.14)

• The Godfather: Book 1, Mario Puzo – Lorelai mentions taking the table in the corner of the diner, the table chosen by mobsters so no one gets whacked by a cannoli.

LORELAI: Hm. Or we could sit in the corner - you know, the Mafia table so that no one can come up behind you and whack you with a cannoli.

RORY: Whack you with a cannoli? Oh, because he left the gun and took the cannoli.

LORELAI: You’re so my daughter.

Lost and Found (2.15)

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – ?

• Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger –

LORELAI: Did you get lost? JESS: No, I was looking at Rory’s books. LORELAI: Uh huh. JESS: I wanted to see if she had Franny and Zooey. She does.

• Howl by Allen Ginsburg – ?

• Inherit the Wind, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee; Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke – At the Buy a Book Fundraiser:

RORY: Inherit the Wind, seventy-five cents. DEAN: Great. RORY: Now, here’s a copy of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet – which I already have, but in hardback. This is a paperback – fits perfectly in a coat pocket and it’s only a dollar. I’m torn.

• Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Charles Bukowski –

• Selected Letters of Dawn Powell : 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell – ?

• The Return of the King: Lord Of The Rings - Book 3, J.R.R.Tolkien –

DEAN: I thought maybe we can go see The Lord of the Rings again. RORY: Oh, okay. DEAN: What? RORY: Nothing. DEAN: Well, I thought you loved The Lord of the Rings. RORY: I do. DEAN: You said you wanted to see it a hundred times. RORY: Yes, and apparently we’re being very literal these days.

• Like Water for Chocolate (trans. Carol and Thomas Christensen), Laura Esquivel – Kirk tries to haggle for books at the sale.

There's the Rub (2.16)

• Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry –

RORY: This is cool, Grandma. EMILY: Thank you, Rory. So, are we all ready to go? LORELAI: I guess so, Miss Daisy. Bye sweets.

• Frankenstein, Mary Shelley –

JESS: I see you brought a little something, too. Is that ice cream? That’s so nice. A tiny little ice cream package just big enough for two. Hey, are you guys gonna feed each other ‘cause that’s just so darn cute. Oops. You’re doing that towering over me thing. Huh. I tell you, you’ve really got that down. It helps that you’re twelve feet tall, but this Frankenstein scowl really adds to the whole –

RORY: Jess.

JESS: Okay, I’m going. Look, man, I really was just dropping off some food, so don’t get all West Side Story on me, okay? [leaves]

• Hamlet, Shakespeare – ?

• Howl, Allen Ginsburg – ?

• On the Road, Jack Kerouac – Finished by Paris...? Read by Rory, too?

Paris: A tragic waste of paper.

Jess: I can't believe you just said that.P

aris: Well it's true. The Beats' writing was completely self-indulgent. I have 1 word for Jack Kerouac: Edit.

Jess: It was not self-indulgent, The Beats believed in shocking people, stirring things up.

Paris: They believed in drugs, booze, and petty crime.

Rory: Well, then you could say that they exposed you to a world that you wouldn't have otherwise known. Isn't that what great writing is all about?

Paris: That was not great writing. It was the National Enquirer of the 50's.

• The Godfather: Book 1, Mario Puzo – When deciding where to sit at Luke's diner:

LORELAI: Hm. Or we could sit in the corner - you know, the Mafia table so that no one can come up behind you and whack you with a cannoli. RORY: "Whack you with a cannoli"? Oh, because he left the gun and took the cannoli. LORELAI: You’re so my daughter.

Dead Uncles and Vegetables (2.17)

• David and Lisa, Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D. –

TAYLOR: Let go of me! PROPRIETOR: Don’t like to be touched, that’s cool. Got a little David and Lisa thing happening? Made a mental note, no problem.

• Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman – Read by Luke's uncle. Luke's uncle wants this buried with him.

• Rapunzel, Brothers Grimm – Taylor refers to the man peddling vegetables at the farmer's market as Rapunzel.

Back in the Saddle Again (2.18)

• Candide, Voltaire –

RORY: I got an A on my physics test. LORELAI: Aw. RORY: And I finished Candide and I convinced a boy that Paris would probably never attack his rabbi. LORELAI: So uneventful, huh?

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain –

LORELAI: Really? How do you know Jess’ writing? RORY: Oh, well, I lent him a book and he wrote some stuff in it. LORELAI: He vandalized one of your books? RORY: No, he didn’t vandalize it. He wrote in the margins, thoughts and stuff. LORELAI: Like what, like play basketball, eat a sandwich – stuff like that? RORY: No, stuff, like margin stuff. People like Mark Twain wrote in margins. LORELAI: Pilot a steamboat, write Huckleberry Finn?

• The Bhagavad Gita –

MADELINE: I’m still reading mine. PARIS: What? MADELINE: I read slow so I don’t miss anything. PARIS: It’s not the Bhagavad Gita, Madeline. It’s simple instructions for the business fair.

• The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx –

• Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett –

EMILY: We are waiting for your father. LORELAI: We’ve been waiting forever. EMILY: We have not been waiting forever. LORELAI: Forever. Godot was just here. He said ‘I ain’t waiting for Richard,’ grabbed a roll, and left. It’s been forever.

• Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting –

MICHEL: You just okayed the vaccination of all those filthy ducks in the south pond. LORELAI: Oh, aren’t I nice. MICHEL: Yes, a regular Dr. Dolittle.

Teach Me Tonight (2.19) – All I can say is: for shame, book lists, for making us think Rory Gilmore read all these books masquerading as movies.

• Fletch, Gregory McDonald –

[Lorelai and Rory are sitting at the counter going through a list of movies]

LORELAI: If we take off Fletch and Urban Cowboy, we still have seventy-five possibilities.

• Othello, William Shakespeare –

RORY: I could not believe you less. Here, you drive, I’ll read you Othello. Won’t that be fun? JESS: You have no idea how much.

• Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain –

JESS: Have you ever read "Please Kill Me"? RORY: No. JESS: Oral history of the punk movement. You’d like it – you can borrow it if you want. RORY: I’m here to help you study. Now, if you want me to go, I’ll go, but if I’m going to stay, then you will stop distracting me and start paying attention, understand? JESS: I understand. RORY: Good. And yes, I would like to borrow it, thank you very much. Now open your book.

• Slaughter-House Five, Kurt Vonnegut –

• The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum; Sophie's Choice, William Styron –

LORELAI: The Wizard of Oz.

RORY: The Sting.

LORELAI: Rocky.

RORY: Crimes and Misdemeanors.

LORELAI: The Singing Detective.

RORY: That was a miniseries.

LORELAI: So?

RORY: So it’s like six hours long.

LORELAI: Good point. Ooh, I got it! Arthur. RORY: Yes! LORELAI: Or Sophie’s Choice. RORY: Very similar. LORELAI: Oh man, I can’t choose, there’s too many great movies. The burden is overwhelming. I’m sinking under the pressure. My grasp on reality is slipping. I can’t do it, I can’t hold on, I just can’t, I just. . .ooh, hey, how about Cabin Boy?

• Terms of Endearment, Larry McMurtry – Lorelai references the movie when she is the hospital looking for Rory.

LORELAI: Hey, do you remember in Terms of Endearment, that scene where Shirley MacLaine is in the hospital and freaks out because they won’t give her daughter a shot? She got that from me and she toned it down a little. So, once again, I’m looking for my daughter, Rory Gilmore?

• The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway – ?

• The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings – The movie that eventially is selected for the Stars Hollow movie night.

• What Happened to Baby Jane?, Henry Farrell –

RORY: Fine, forget it. Just don’t answer the phone. LORELAI: Hello, I get calls there, too. I’m not ‘whatever happened to Baby Jane?’ yet, thank you very much.

Help Wanted (2.20)

• Complete Novels, Dawn Powell; Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/ Angels on Toast/ A Time to Be Born, Dawn Powell –

LANE: Dawn Powell? I’ve never heard of her. RORY: Nobody has, which is a shame because she wrote sixteen amazing novels, nine plays, and there are some who actually claim that it was Powell who made the jokes that Dorothy Parker got credit for. LANE: Blasphemy. RORY: I know. I’m trying not to hold it against Dawn though, until I have proof that she was involved with the whole smear campaign.

• The Little Locksmith, Katharine Butler Hathaway –

RORY: Okay, see, this is not how you console the injured.

LORELAI: You’re right, I’m sorry. How about this?

RORY: The Little Locksmith!

LORELAI: And I got it at the bookstore, paid full price.

Lorelai's Graduation Day (2.21)

• Emily the Strange, Roger Reger –

• High Fidelity, Nick Hornsby –

JESS: There's a record store you should check out. It's run by this insane freak who's like a walking encyclopedia for every punk and garage-band record ever made. Catalog numbers...it’s crazy. The place is right out of High Fidelity.

• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin –

• Essentials of Economics, 3rd ed., Bradley R. Schiller – Not on the list, understandably because it's a textbook, but I will still include it here.

• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Woolf – Funnily enough, this is referenced by Taylor in a later episode when the town loner is protesting in the town sqaure and is on the list again.

• What Color is Your Parachute? 2005, Richard Nelson Bolles; The Graduate, Charles Webb; The Portable Nietzche, Fredrich Nietzche –

LORELAI: Hey, did a basket come for me?

MICHEL: Mm, it came, it was heavy, I felt a twinge so I dropped it for health reasons. It's probably still intact.

LORELAI: My crack staff has just informed me of its arrival. I'm going to find it. [walks into the lobby and sees the basket on a table] Wow!

CHRISTOPHER: I put it together myself.

LORELAI: And it's all for me?

CHRISTOPHER: All for you.

LORELAI: Chris. . wow. [starts looking through the basket] Ha! A twenty-five dollar savings bond.

CHRISTOPHER: That's a long-term investment. Don't touch it for thirty years, you're looking at forty-five dollars.

LORELAI: Ooh, a youth hostel card.

CHRISTOPHER: For the young girl who doesn't mind sharing a bathroom with fifty strangers.

LORELAI: "What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job Hunters."

CHRISTOPHER: Helping you answer the two questions: what do you want to do and where do you want to do it?

LORELAI: A DVD of The Graduate, gotta have that. Ooh, The Portable Nietzsche. CHRISTOPHER: Light, cheery reading.

• The Jumping Frog, Mark Twain; The Lottery, Shirley Jackson – The second wasn't mentioned on the List, but it's referenced right next to Twain's short story.

LORELAI: We don't patronize the next town.

RORY: Since when?

LORELAI: I don’t know, didn't they feed lead to our jumping frog or something?RORY: Oh yeah, right after they stoned the woman who won the lottery.

I Can't Get Started (2.22)

• The Story of My Life, Helen Keller; "The Miracle Worker," William Gibson – I added this to the list because of Lorelai's reference when listening to Sookie's proposed song to walk down the aisle to:

SOOKIE: It’s a classic song. LORELAI: A classic song with lyrics about a woman who can’t make her relationship work, whose life is filled with emptiness and regret and pain. SOOKIE: Oh, who listens to the lyrics? LORELAI: Anybody not hanging out with Annie Sullivan by the water pump.

• Brigadoon, Alan Jay Lerner –

CHRISTOPHER: When Jackson came out holding that kilt – man, I felt for him.

LORELAI: I know, so did I.

CHRISTOPHER: Please, I saw what your face was doing.LORELAI: What? What was my face doing?

CHRISTOPHER: It was counting up how many Brigadoon references you could come up with to torture him with at a later date.

LORELAI: How dare you accuse my face of that! My face is calling Gloria Alred when we get home.

CHRISTOPHER: How many references?

LORELAI: None.

CHRISTOPHER: How many?

LORELAI: Twelve, including a few bars of I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean.

• Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen –

LORELAI: Sookie, you’ve gotta be kidding. SOOKIE: What? LORELAI: You cannot walk down the aisle to that. SOOKIE: Why? LORELAI: It’s depressing. SOOKIE: It’s "Ella". LORELAI: It’s morbid. SOOKIE: It’s a classic song. LORELAI: A classic song with lyrics about a woman who can’t make her relationship work, whose life is filled with emptiness and regret and pain. SOOKIE: Oh, who listens to the lyrics? LORELAI: Anybody not hanging out with Annie Sullivan by the water pump. RORY: What are these? SOOKIE: Oh, those are some alternative songs, but I really like this one the best. LORELAI: Alternative songs, good. Let’s see. "Hey Jude". SOOKIE: Paul wrote it for Julian to cheer him up. LORELAI: Seasons in the Sun? SOOKIE: Oh, a sentimental favorite. LORELAI: Cat’s in the Cradle? SOOKIE: Oh, it makes you re-examine your priorities. LORELAI: Don’t Cry Out Loud? Sookie, do you even like Jackson? MICHEL: Okay, I have a wonderful suggestion. LORELAI: Great, let’s hear it. MICHEL: Okay, here we go. How about I leave? LORELAI: And then do what? MICHEL: That’s it. I leave and I don’t have to listen to this insanity anymore. What do you think, huh? Because I love it. LORELAI: Michel, I am in the wedding, which means you have to run the wedding all by yourself, something you’ve never done before. MICHEL: Oh, please. RORY: I’ll tell you what, Sookie. How about Lane and I come up with a few more suggestions for you? Still melodic, but not quite as Girl, Interrupted.

• Inferno, Dante –

RORY: You’re totally gloating. LORELAI: I’m not gloating. RORY: Then why are you smiling? LORELAI: I’m not smiling. I had a little stroke. RORY: Smiling. LORELAI: Oh, look, if he was all broken up about it then I would be sad, but he’s not, so ha ha. RORY: Fourth rung of hell, party of one. LORELAI: Well, at least my feet won’t get cold.