The Gilmore Girls World of Books: An Exclusive Interview with Julianne Buonocore

Grab your coffee and settle in for a chat with the creator of Friday Night Readers!

There are many independent creators who have been inspired by Gilmore Girls and the Gilmore fandom, who add their own spin to the content they put out. At Remarkist, we celebrate fans’ passions for the storyworlds they love and the original content they create around those storyworlds. We spoke with blogger, podcaster and Gilmore fan Julianne Buonocore, Jules @ Friday Night Readers, who has run a monthly Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020. Over at Friday Night Readers and on the Friday Night Readers podcast, she takes a deeper look at the book references on Gilmore Girls, giving context to the books and other pop culture that are mentioned, shown, or quoted on the show.

We had a great discussion with Julianne about her Gilmore fandom, the career she’s built by following her passions, and…books, of course! Check out our conversation with Julianne Buonocore!

Remarkist Editors: Everyone has a Gilmore story, a “way in” to the franchise that made them a fan. What is your Gilmore story?

Julianne Buonocore: During the original airing of Gilmore Girls, my younger sister was actually the superfan, to the point that she had the DVDs playing 24 hours a day, so it would always be on whenever she walked into a room. Crazy, right?! I was a newly eco-conscious college student and couldn’t believe my parents would allow her to waste energy like this. So, while I did very much enjoy watching with her, I like to say that I mostly watched through osmosis. I tried to keep up with it during law school (Rory’s college years), but I mostly missed it during this busy time in my academic life.

I did watch the reboot when it aired, and then, in the midst of the pandemic, I was looking for both a comfort show and a more meaningful reading challenge. The idea of Gilmore Girls immediately resonated with both me and my Bookstagram followers, so I created a separate book club account, and we’ve been taking the Rory Gilmore reading challenge and rewatching the show for five consecutive years now! This is when I became a superfan.

RE: Tell us a bit about your background and how you came to create Friday Night Readers.

JB: I feel like a Kirk-of-all-trades at this point in my life! I first studied political science and English, very much like Rory. I spent many years in law, always craving to use that English side of me, too. I ran many blogs over the years, mostly private, unless you count my award show commentary on MySpace in the mid-aughts.

However, after my 2019 wedding, I felt a stronger urge for a more substantial creative project. I had just spent the year planning a literary honeymoon in Italy and wanted a public space where I could share my book reviews and travel guides for the cities we visited. This was the impetus for my blog, The Literary Lifestyle–a mix of literature and related lifestyle. I felt the idea had business potential, because I knew both how to set it up “the right way” technically and how to grow it through search engine optimization, based on legal work I had done for my husband’s e-commerce business.

In my spare time, I focused on creating informative, long-form content that answered questions people were searching for (lists, guides, book club questions, chapter summaries, etc.) and constantly improved the site’s back end, which led to substantial growth. I added my Gilmore Girls book club as a small piece of the bigger pie in this business in late 2020. The Literary Lifestyle has reached somewhere north of 15 million total readers, which is wild to me! After a few years, I quit law to focus on it full-time.

But all businesses experience ups and downs, and mine was no different. In short, the advent of artificial intelligence has virtually obliterated our industry over the past two years. I could write a book about everything that was, and still is, hard about this, but I’ll cut to how I came to Friday Night Readers.

The business needed to change both in a literal sense and for the sake of my mental health. I kept coming back to Gilmore Girls. This is what always made me feel good when life got hard. Their fans were the ones who were consistently my most avid readers. And their reading challenge remained the one thing that continued to spark joy in my reading life. I decided to focus entirely on my Gilmore Girls book club.

I rebranded as Friday Night Readers, which is a nod to Friday night dinners, but instead of having dinner at Richard’s and Emily’s, we read. I now primarily run this project on Substack, which has allowed me to offer book club members much more engaging content, including a podcast, themed newsletters, and chat threads. My goal is for it to be a haven for people who love to rewatch Gilmore Girls and read like Rory. My biggest wish is that someone chooses to open Substack and engage with us there, rather than opening a social media app.

RE: Our favorite thing about FNR is the free printable PDF of the Rory Gilmore Book List. How did you pull together the complete list–and have you yourself read them all?

JB: This is mine and tens of thousands of readers’ favorite thing, too! It’s been, by far, my most popular offering over the years (free for Substack subscribers). Our Rory Gilmore reading challenge started by referencing a popular book list that I quickly realized was outdated. First, it didn’t contain the reboot. Second, I kept finding books on the show that weren’t on the list! So, I created my own Rory Gilmore reading list, which, to my knowledge, is the largest compilation available. I’m currently refining it with even more books, and I share specific episode references in printables for paid Substack subscribers that correspond to my podcast episodes. I must admit, I’ve become quite obsessive about finding and adding new books.

I’ve read about 130 books out of the 500+ books on the list. I usually read just 1-2 a month, both because many of these books are challenging and because I want to continue taking this challenge! I don’t want my reading and rewatching to ever come to an end.

RE: You recently started a podcast! With so many Gilmore-related podcasts out there, tell us how yours is different and what listeners can expect.

JB: I did! The Friday Night Readers podcast is a pop culture rewatch of Gilmore Girls. I’m not aware of anything like it. I break down the books and pop culture references episode by episode, so you can actually understand their fast talk.

As you may expect, I receive many questions about where to find specific books mentioned on the show, and some of the references can be obscure and difficult to explain quickly over email or on social media. For example, Lorelai often quotes The Godfather, without actually saying The Godfather. She may just talk about a cannoli and a gun in an Italian restaurant. This type of reference requires a bit more context, which was the impetus for the podcast.

But, as I rewatched the show to plan the podcast, I kept thinking, “I wish I could also tell listeners what this pop culture reference means, too.” I’m Rory’s age, so everything from the music to the fashion and famous people of the early 00s is all very much within my wheelhouse. So, I expanded the podcast to all types of pop culture references.

It’s bite-sized and very info-packed, so you have more time to read like Rory and rewatch the show! What I love about the format is that it quickly offers a dose of nostalgia for listeners of a certain age and a dose of knowledge for readers of a different age. Gilmore Girls has become such a multi-generational show, so I love that I can reach a diverse range of listeners this way. I’d also like to add some off-the-cuff chats and bonus episodes soon.

RE: Rory has drawers full of books, titles we don’t get to see. What’s one book you imagine is in her collection but not shown or named in the series?

JB: I love this question because I am that person who has paused episodes to try to identify books in Rory’s drawers. I also simply can’t stop at one! There are so many. For years, I believed Anne of Green Gables was on the list. It isn’t, and I don’t know how we got so many Pippi Longstocking references, but never an Anne Shirley one. The Handmaid’s Tale has so many reasons to be there, including Alexis Bledel’s current role on the TV adaptation. And, the list only has one Judy Blume book (Deenie). How was Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret never mentioned?! The title alone makes for the perfect reference. And, you just know that both Lorelai and Rory would have read it.

RE: We have to know: Besides Rory, which Stars Hollow Townie would you love to start a book club with and what would your first pick be?

JB: I would pick Sookie because she’d feed us well! She’s also so sweet that I know our book club chats would remain pleasant. Our first pick would be The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller. This is the most “Gilmore” book I’ve ever read.

A Boston pastry chef takes a job at a Vermont Inn, where she befriends locals at events like a harvest dinner and an apple pie contest. Of course, she also sparks a small-town romance with a local caretaker of his father. It’s a no-brainer for Sookie!

Julianne Buonocore has run a monthly Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and was featured in the book But I’m a Gilmore! Fueled by coffee, on the Friday Night Readers podcast, she breaks down the books and other pop culture references on Gilmore Girls, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about as you rewatch and read like Rory with us. Subscribe at FridayNightReaders.substack.com to get notified of new episodes and participate in her virtual book club community that feels like Stars Hollow.

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