Movies, TV shows and books can mean a lot to  an individual. Lorelai Gilmore (Rory), a main  character from the iconic drama series “Gilmore  Girls,” loves books a ton.  

“I live in two worlds,” Rory says. “And one is a world of  books.”  

Many young people are fans of Rory’s because of her  high level intelligence, movie star looks, fun personality  and strong relationships with all the other characters  in the show. She proved to be inspiring to many young  ladies because even though she was intelligent (and let’s  be honest; a nerd). She wasn’t stereotypical, which was  new to the early 2000’s film.  

Kathryn Ott, Parkway Central High’s very own ESOL  (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teacher is a  fan herself.  

“She had good relationships. She had friends. She was  involved in the community. It just seemed very recognizable,” Ott said. “There are a lot of us out there like that.  They just don’t make it on mainstream TV. She wasn’t  socially awkward. I was just really happy to see a role  like that for myself.”  

Rory Gilmore’s intelligence is beyond comparison.  She made it into both Harvard and Yale and top of her  class in her high school. She cared about her grades and  always had straight A’s, but still managed to have time to  hang out with her family and friends every weekend.  Rory Gilmore is not the only main character though.  

Her mother, Lorelai  Gilmore, who gave  birth to Rory at just  16 years old has her  

own conflicts with her  mother, Emily Gilmore (Rory Gilmore’s  grandmother). These  conflicts are relatable  for many individuals.  Within their own fam ily lives. Ott and many  other viewers relate to  these problems.  

“Recognizing that  family relationships  are complicated, but  they don’t necessarily  go away or you aren’t  in a position to totally  write family off. So you  know, it’s an ongoing  struggle, things go up  and things go down.  My relationship with  my mom is pretty  similar to Lorelei and  Emily just in terms of  what we value, what  we want for ourselves.  But they were still family, they still had a relationship. They were able to  reach stages of forgiveness and understanding and I  really appreciated rewatching that in my 20s,” said Ott.  

These struggles are something that so many people  have. Connecting to family members can be hard de pending on the situations and personalities but “Gilmore  Girls” reminds everyone that family is going to be there  no matter what and that is the beauty of it.  

Ott admits to having struggles with her own family  but she continues to connect with “Gilmore Girls” in yet  another way.  

Rory Gilmore is known for carrying a book in her bag  everywhere she goes. She has a book for the bus, a back  up book for the bus, a book to read while eating lunch, a  book of short stories and another book just in case on top  of all her school books.  

Ott herself is a book worm but she took it to the next  level. She challenged herself to read all 350 books that  Rory Gilmore read during the seven seasons of “Gilmore  Girls” in addition to creating the list by herself. She originally found out about the challenge through BuzzFeed  and worked from there to create a master list and read all  of the books on it. 

“I think the first time I heard about it, it was through  BuzzFeed,” Ott said. “Because they give you those quizzes,  ‘How Many Classic Books Have You Read?’ And one of  them was for “Gilmore Girls” when they released the four  series on Netflix a couple years ago, and so that popped  up on BuzzFeed, but I was like, ‘wow, I haven’t read a lot  of these books,’” said Ott. 

She went on to create a master list of all the lists from  other websites and combined them. However, she came  across a couple challenges as she was gathering her  information.  

“It would be the incorrect title, or it wouldn’t be  specific and so then I had to figure out which book is not  real,” said Ott. 

As Ott started her challenge she came across another  barrier.  

“Finding all the books because some of them are  obscure,” Ott said. “Half the travel books I read were from  the 1970s. They’re out of date. They’re not printed. I had to  go through Amazon and some other booksellers, to see if  these still exist,”  

As you could imagine, some of these books are not the  most fun and exciting and makes reading some of these  350 books quite difficult to finish. 

“And then some of them were really boring,” Ott said.  “And so when you got a boring book, it’s not fun to read,  you’re less motivated. So boring and long was definitely a challenge.”  

You might watch an episode of “Gilmore Girls” and  think, “this is just the same drama show as everything  else on Netflix,” but it’s not. “Gilmore Girls” is an inspiring  show to many. The characters’ individuality, strengths  and weaknesses as well as the relationships they have  with each other strengthen the best qualities in the people who enjoy this show.  

If you are up for a challenge, have trouble finding  things to read, or are curious about what other kinds of  literature there is out there. Feel free to check the challenge out yourself. It’s not easy. If you were to take on the  challenge though, my advice to you would be to fall into  Rory Gilmore’s nature.  

 “I just take a book with me everywhere I go. It’s just a  habit.” – Rory Gilmore

To see Mrs. Ott’s full list click here