sorry this post is a little bit late today!! i’ve been working on finding the finalists for the book blogger awards and it’s taken up more of my time than i realized this week!

A couple of few months ago (wow, it’s been a while) I read All the Light We Cannot See at the same time as three of my close (irl) friends. This was the first time I’ve ever read a book at the same time as anyone, especially anyone who actually wanted to talk about the book like I did.  Overall, I really enjoyed it, and would hands down do it again, but it made me think about some of the pros and cons of reading a book at the same time as someone else. Since i see lots of people online starting buddy reading or book clubs, i hope other people will be interested in hearing my thoughts!

1. You can talk about the book

The most obvious pro. It gives you someone right there with you that you can talk about the book with, right after you’re done reading a chapter. I LOVE talking about books with people, and so getting to do it somewhere other than Twitter/Goodreads/my blog was super awesome. I feel like i picked up on small things much better as well, since the little details i didn’t notice, someone else was bound to.

2. It makes you read faster

When other people are waiting on you to read a chapter, you’re wayyyyy more likely to read it. Most of y’all probably don’t have a problem with reading quickly, but sometimes i can forget to pick up my book for a long period of time; when other people are reading it with you, this doesn’t happen.

3. People to read with

this is basically a combination of the two above. having people to read with is an ENTIRELY different experience than reading alone. whether your actually in the same room together (reading the same book at the same time on the same bed with a bowl of popcorn between you? goals.) or you’re reading three states away but chatting while you do it, it just makes everything so much more fun, and you find that you want to read even more than you did before.

4. Only buy one copy

this only applies to some of us, but if you’re reading out loud together, or in the same room, you only have to buy one copy instead of two, which can be a HUGE money saver. personally my group of friends had 2 copies for 4 of us and it worked really well, because chances are only 2 of us wanted to read it at the same time anyways.

5. Differing opinions cause tension

so. my friend group also happens to be VERYYYY opinionated. and we stick with our opinions. so when we ship two different people, or fall in love with the “wrong” person (according to our friends) we can get into fights about it. i also find that you might have a more negative version of the book overall if everyone is constantly pointing out its flaws, versus if you read it on your own and didn’t actively say the flaws out loud until you went to write the review.

6. waiting… waiting… waiting…

i’m the one to blame for this one, surprisingly. one of my friends reads reallyyy fast. like extraordinarily fast (#genius) which makes it hard for the rest of us to keep up. sure, that makes me read faster, but on the flip side of that, she took frequent breaks to wait for me to catch up, so that she could talk to me about whatever epiphany she just had that absolutely cannot wait 5 minutes for me to finish the chapter.

so basically, overall i think buddy reading is super awesome, and would 100% do it again (although maybe next time i should find people who read just a littttlleee slower)  it’s a great way to get closer with someone, while at the same time checking books off of your tbr and getting great blog content! 3 birds, one stone!

let's talk

What are your opinions on buddy reading? have you ever buddy read, and if so was it a good experience? is there any particular strategies you would recommend for a better experience?

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