Gilmore Girls is an old TV show I've recently discovered. Following the lives of Lorelai Gilmore, her daughter Rory, and her mother Emily, I've spent quite some time binge-watching episodes.
Rory Gilmore, the youngest "Gilmore Girl", is a bookworm. And when I say bookworm, I mean, like, full-on bookworm - she's been seen in the show reading books by a whole range of authors, from Dr Seuss to JK Rowling to PG Wodehouse to Sylvia Plath.
Which has prompted what is known as the "Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge", a list of books Rory's read in the show.
When I tried to see how many of the books on the list I had read, I got a pretty abysmal score- 20 out of 339.
I set out to try and better it.
I'm hoping, in the next twelve months, to double that score.
And as I do so, I'm planning to post my progress, reviewing the books I read as I tick them off the list.
I hope, on the way, to discover new, interesting books. And let's face it, also to impress people by saying I've read some of the more fancy, depressing-but-considered-a-classic books on that list.
I hope, as I try to double in a year the number of books on the challenge I've read in almost sixteen, that you'll see some that maybe you've never read, and decide whether you want to give it a shot too.
And so I begin, as so many of my favourite protagonists do, on a quest. Admittedly it's not as dramatic as defeating a dark lord, or wreaking revenge- but only at face value. Because I'm doing all of that and more. As I read The Lord of the Rings series, I will walk with Frodo, and cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. As I read The Count of Monte Cristo, I will suffer with Edmond Dantes, and watch coldly as the men who unfairly cast him into prison fall in the eyes of the world. As I read The Odyssey, I will search with Telemachus for his father, and fight with Odysseus as he struggles to return home to Ithaca. As I read Emma, I will matchmake and meddle alongside Emma.
I don't need a prophecy, or a gift of a powerful object, to begin.
My quest begins now.
Rory Gilmore, the youngest "Gilmore Girl", is a bookworm. And when I say bookworm, I mean, like, full-on bookworm - she's been seen in the show reading books by a whole range of authors, from Dr Seuss to JK Rowling to PG Wodehouse to Sylvia Plath.
Which has prompted what is known as the "Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge", a list of books Rory's read in the show.
When I tried to see how many of the books on the list I had read, I got a pretty abysmal score- 20 out of 339.
I set out to try and better it.
I'm hoping, in the next twelve months, to double that score.
And as I do so, I'm planning to post my progress, reviewing the books I read as I tick them off the list.
I hope, on the way, to discover new, interesting books. And let's face it, also to impress people by saying I've read some of the more fancy, depressing-but-considered-a-classic books on that list.
I hope, as I try to double in a year the number of books on the challenge I've read in almost sixteen, that you'll see some that maybe you've never read, and decide whether you want to give it a shot too.
And so I begin, as so many of my favourite protagonists do, on a quest. Admittedly it's not as dramatic as defeating a dark lord, or wreaking revenge- but only at face value. Because I'm doing all of that and more. As I read The Lord of the Rings series, I will walk with Frodo, and cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. As I read The Count of Monte Cristo, I will suffer with Edmond Dantes, and watch coldly as the men who unfairly cast him into prison fall in the eyes of the world. As I read The Odyssey, I will search with Telemachus for his father, and fight with Odysseus as he struggles to return home to Ithaca. As I read Emma, I will matchmake and meddle alongside Emma.
I don't need a prophecy, or a gift of a powerful object, to begin.
My quest begins now.
