15 Banned Books the Gilmore Girls Read

Lane’s with the band, but the Gilmore Girls are with the banned. Books, that is.

Since 2021, I’ve run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge and a Read Like a Gilmore challenge to read the books on Gilmore Girls, and I recently published the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. In other words, these books are my lifestyle, my religion. (Wink!)

So, because September = back-to-school, Banned Books Month, and Gilmore Girls rewatches, I’ve compiled the show’s nearly two dozen banned book references for you.

But First: The Current State of Banned Books

The American Library Association documented 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, the second-highest number it has ever recorded. According to PEN America, 3,743 titles were banned during the 2024-2025 school year, with a surge in nonfiction titles. Here’s what’s getting banned and why:

“Since 2021, book bans have reflected backlash, at times coordinated, against the mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, efforts to reckon with the country’s history of racism and inequality, and increased comfort with open discussion of sex and sexuality. For books banned in the 2024-2025 school year, a strain of anti-intellectualism, as illustrated in bans on nonfiction titles, also mirrors the broader political attack on facts and knowledge and the skepticism and devaluation of, and disdain for, experts and expertise—tactics long associated with the rise of authoritarian regimes and intended to sow distrust in democratic institutions.”

But here’s what the Gilmore Girls understood:

Banned books allow us to encounter experiences different from our own, question ideas we may disagree with, and decide for ourselves what we believe. We should celebrate them because the freedom to choose what we read is worth protecting.

It’s not about forcing anyone to read anything. It’s about access.

Top 12 Banned Books From Gilmore Girls

There’s no better evidence of the show’s support for books than the banned-books poster on Rory’s and Paris’s walls. I’ve recreated my own version for you.

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: Pair this easy classic book with the recent Pulitzer Prize-winning book James by Percival Everett, which is the story from Jim’s perspective.
2. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: Note that Faulkner is hard!
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Often banned for content involving “moral corruption.”
4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: A high school favorite for me and so many others coming of age, especially young men like Jess.
5. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller: A classic American play with an emotional impact.
6. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: Lorelai references this so many times! I loved the movie, too.
7. Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg: Jess borrows this from Rory. You can read it in about an hour.
8. Lord of the Flies by William Golding: A quick and easy classic book with a great recent Netflix adaptation.
9. Native Son by Richard Wright: Often banned for content with violence, sex, profanity, and racism.
10. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: A short classic that’s well-loved by our book club members.
11. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: One of the most iconic books on Gilmore Girls and one of the Great American Novels.
12. Ulysses by James Joyce: I’ve heard this is extremely hard!

More Banned Books From Gilmore Girls

Still need help? Get a more expansive list of reading options below! I used the American Library Association’s lists of 100 most frequently banned books from 2010-2019 and 2000 to 2009 (the Gilmore Girls era) to create this list. Of the 475+ books on the Gilmore Girls reading list, 15 are banned based on these criteria.

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
6. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
9. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
10. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
11. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
12. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
13. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
14. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
15. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Life’s short, read fast. -Jules