Friday Night Readers is a virtual book club and digital content provider (via blog posts, email newsletters, and social media) dedicated to reading the books featured on Gilmore Girls and attaining the aesthetic of Stars Hollow in both literature and life.
2019: As an avid reader, I wrote book reviews and themed book lists (especially for literary travel during my Italian honeymoon) for my personal use. However, I wanted a more public digital platform to store them, so my friends and family could access my recommendations as well. My blog, “Jules Buono®,” was born based on my nickname.
2020: Quarantine gave me more time for reading and blogging, allowing my hobbies to flourish during this period. I decided to tackle the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge by reading the 500+ books mentioned on the show while re-watching it on Netflix. My social media followers loved this idea and wanted to join in on it. Thus, my book club, The Rory Gilmore Book Club, was born.
2021: My blog, Jules Buono®, had grown substantially, and I wanted the brand to reflect what it had become and where it was going in the future. I re-branded it to The Literary Lifestyle®. I also organized a book drive that secured 1,500 books in one week for low-income, Philly-based school districts that were especially in need of this support due to the pandemic’s challenges.
2022: What started as a personal blog had become a full-fledged business. I quit my law firm job and started focusing my full-time efforts on The Literary Lifestyle®, helping an increasingly larger number of readers improve their reading lives. I also wrote an essay about my book club that was published in the book But I’m a Gilmore!
2023-2024: The Literary Lifestyle® reached millions of readers through our website, email community, book club, and other social media channels. It became a leading provider of digital book-related content worldwide.
2025: As the threats and effects of Artificial Intelligence grew, I decided to lean into the human element of my business, The Rory Gilmore Book Club, full-time via memberships and other streams of income than informational blogging. This sparked my desire to officially merge The Literary Lifestyle and The Rory Gilmore Book Club into a more focused brand and niche community: Friday Night Readers. This new brand name remains fully inspired by Gilmore Girls but is ever so slightly more open-ended. The new name is a nod to Friday night dinners from Gilmore Girls.
The book club portion of Friday Night Readers functions primarily on Substack. We tackle the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge through a monthly theme, such as “classics” or “children’s books.” We share the theme, and you pick a book of your choice from the list of 500+ books on Gilmore Girls to read on that theme. Your host, Jules, guides you throughout the month, from helping you choose a book to sharing more about the books (and related content) from that month’s theme, and chatting with you on Substack along the way. You can utilize our resources, such as the Gilmore Girls book checklist and social media templates, to track your progress.
Start here to learn how to become a free or paid member of the Friday Night Readers virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls.
Anyone can follow us for free. We share free content across Substack, social media, and our podcast. To fully commit to our virtual book club, you can upgrade to a paid membership on Substack. This supports the continuation of our work and offers you exclusive benefits, including full community chat access and printable guides, including the books mentioned in each episode of Gilmore Girls.
Books are art, and art is subjective, so there’s never a one-size-fits-all answer to this common question. But you can quickly decide what to read next from the Gilmore Girls reading list with my helpful quiz.
My favorite places to get books for the Friday Night Readers book club are the library (free) and library sales (cheap). Additionally, I regularly receive books from the following sources and recommend them to you: Book of the Month for newly released hardcover books, PangoBooks or ThriftBooks for cheap new and used print books, Libro.fm for audiobooks that support independent bookstores, and Audible for exclusive editions of the classics narrated by famous actors.
Get exclusive discount codes for these retailers.
The Friday Night Readers podcast takes a literary dive into each episode of Gilmore Girls, so you can pair your book club reading with your rewatches. Listen on all major podcast providers. Subscribe to get new episodes emailed directly to you, so you don’t miss them.
Julianne Buonocore. I’m the founder and president of Friday Night Readers (formerly known as The Literary Lifestyle® and The Rory Gilmore Book Club), an authentic virtual book club community dedicated to helping you embrace a cozy and literary way of life inspired by Gilmore Girls.
I’m a reader of over 100 books per year. I studied English literature and have been featured in The Today Show’s Read with Jenna Book Club, as well as on BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, Reader’s Digest, Women’s Health, The Everygirl, Glamour, and more. My essay about our book club was published in the book But I’m a Gilmore!
Visit Friday Night Readers’ Contact page for more information for authors, brands, creators, and readers.
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