The Rory Gilmore Book List - Season Four

I think it is very revealing that books stop appearing at the end of the third season and into the fourth. There are too many episodes in this season with no books mentioned. The travesty.

SEASON FOUR

Ballroom & Biscotti (4.1) – None :(

The Lorelais’ First Day at Yale (4.2)

• Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, Judith Thurman; The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty; The Second Sex (trans. H.M. Parshley), Simone de Beauvoir – Not on the list.

• The Apocalyptics - Cancer and the Big Lie: How Environmental Politics Controls What We Know About Cancer, Edith Efron; The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volumes 1, 3-5 (ed. Anne Olivier Bell) – Also not on the list.

The Hobbit, The Sofa and Digger Stiles (4.3)

• Atonement, Ian McEwan

• Haiku, Volume 2: Spring, R.H. Blyth – Not on the list.

Chicken or Beef (4.4)

• Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen – Rory already read this in or prior to season one when she loaned it to Dean. She must really love it.

The Fundamental Things Apply (4.5)

• Cujo, Stephen King – The Lorelais were fans (or non-fans) of the movie, as evidenced by their continual references.

LORELAI: Days. You've been stomping around, barking at people for days. LUKE: I have not. LORELAI: Yes, Cujo, you have. LUKE: I always talk to people like that. LORELAI: No, Benji, you don't. LUKE: I'll be fine tomorrow. LORELAI: Really, Lassie? Why is that?

• Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, Ernest Hemingway – The "Other Stories" are not on the list, but are on the Gilmore Girls Library website.

• Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald – Rory is still reading Hemingway and not Fitzgerald in the next episode, which is presumably "next week"...

PROFESSOR: Next week we finish up with Snows of Kilimanjaro, then it is Hemingway's pal Scott Fitzgerald, so do yourselves a favor - get a jump on Tender is the Night.

• The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

• Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte – ?

An Affair to Remember (4.6)

• Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, Ernest Hemingway –

​The Festival of Living Art (4.7)

• 1984, George Orwell

LORELAI: Fine, keep jiggling. I was just going through something, I thought you might be interested. It's from 1984. SOOKIE: The book? LORELAI: No, the year.

• The Holy Bible – Not on the list, but...

KIRK: Woohoo! LORELAI: What'd you get, Kirk? KIRK: Christ in "The Last Supper." LORELAI: The big kahuna. KIRK: I'm gonna do it right, too. Lots of research. What's a good book to read? LORELAI: Uh, the bible?

• Oscar Wilde – Not on the list, presumably because it doesn't mention a specific work, but that's never stopped the list-makers before.

LORELAI: Good morning. BEAU: Is it? SOOKIE: Just spreading that love and sunshine around, huh, buddy? Lorelai, this is Beau, Jackson's brother. Beau, this is our friend Lorelai. LORELAI: Hi. BEAU: Hm. SOOKIE: Come on. Let's leave Oscar Wilde here to his reading.

Die, Jerk (4.8) – None :(

Ted Koppel's Big Night Out (4.9) – None :(

The Nanny and the Professor (4.10)

• Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann;Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Jason: There are hundreds of great books in here, ranging from the classics - Wuthering Heights - to the real classics - Valley of the Dolls. Lorelai: Nice taste.

• Contemporary Political Fiction – Fictional text. Makes it hard to read.

In the Clamor and the Clangor (4.11)

• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway – Not on the list.

• The Bright of Martydom (fictional text); Jane: One Woman’s Harrowing Journey to God (fictional text) – The books are used to disguise CDs that Rory smuggles out of Lane's house. I put them in purple since no one actually reads them

• Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution, Stephen Colegrave and Colin Sullivan – Not on the list.

A Family Matter (4.12) – The list says none, but...

• Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, Judith Thurman – The ever-present Colette. Not on the list for this episode.

• Billy Budd and Other Tales, Herman Melville – Not on the list.

Nag Hammadi Is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels (4.13)

• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Al Franken

• The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels – It's all in the title.

SPEAKER: The importance cannot be overstated. Language is humanity's lifeline. That is why I thank each and every one of you for your loyal support of the Ephram Wordus Rare Manuscript Acquisition Foundation. Because without it, we would just be stuck rooting around Nag Hammadi.

• Billy Budd and Other Tales, Herman Melville​ – Not on the list.

The Incredible Shrinking Lorelais (4.14) – None :(

Scene in a Mall (4.15)

• The Andy Warhol Diaries (ed. Pat Hackett)

The Reigning Lorelai (4.16)

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

JASON: Hey, I didn't know you were gonna be here.

LORELAI: Oh, yeah, well, the white rabbit ran by. I chased him, fell down a hole, and here I am.

• The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber – Emily says has to finish this for her book club.

Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist (4.17)

• The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill, Ron Suskind

Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom! (4.18) – None :(

Afterboom (4.19)

• The Trial, Franz Kafka

ASHER FLEMING: On Tuesday, we'll continue our look at "Neglect of the Individual" as a hallmark of modern government. Be prepared to discuss Kafka's "The Trial." Yes, if, uh, if all goes well, it'll get very ugly.

• Jaglon, Asher Fleming – Fictional text. Since there's no way to acquire this, I mark it in purple.

• Points of View, W. Somerset Maugham

Luke Can See Her Face (4.20) – The list says none but that doesn't include the fictional audio- and in-print book.

• You Deserve Love

Last Week Fights, This Week Tights (4.21) See note on previous episode.

• You Deserve Love

• Chaucer, Euclid, Kafka

RORY: It's only hitting me now. My classes are done -- done. I don't have to think about Chaucer or Euclid or Kafka or Machiavelli for months. I can just think about Jane magazine and why did Uma wear that dress -- fun stuff like that. DEAN: You'll still think about Kafka...and probably Chaucer.

Raincoats and Recipes (4.22) – None :( ...Which kind of makes sense. This episode is very un-Rory, so it makes sense that the level of book references would be very un-Rory.