Hi, everyone! It’s me, Ely from Earl Grey Books, back today with my monthly guest post for you all. Now today we’re talking about a part of the book community that Angel and I love and that’s buddy reading! If you follow one (or both) of us, then you’ve probably seen one of our buddy read discussions—last month we talked about The Midnight Lie over on my blog and we’ll be talking about Never Seduce A Scoundrel by Sabrina Jeffries in a few days time. But this post is all about sharing some of the reasons you should buddy read things.

It’s Way More Fun To Read With Friends

Angel and I do all of our buddy reads now with the purpose of creating these discussions for you all, but even with that we still share our thoughts as we’re reading just over Facebook. There’s something so fun about getting to scream about a moment in a book without your friends or to tease them about ‘just wait until you get to chapter 16’ or whatever.

It’s A Great Motivator To Finish The Book

If you’re like me and often have thirty million books on the go, buddy reading is a great way to make sure you’re actually finishing books off. If someone’s waiting for you to finish something off, you’re probably less likely to procrastinate it. In the same vein, buddy reading with Angel has made me finish off some of the books I probably would have DNFed otherwise.

Photo by Gabrielle Dickson on Unsplash

Get Things Off Your TBR

Likewise, if you’re really bad at reading the books on your TBR then just make your friend read it with you. I’ve used Angel’s help with this one many times over. Of course, it works best if you have both happen to want to get a particular book off your TBR but it can also work in a best friend picks my TBR kind of way…

Broaden Your Horizons

If you and your friend read completely different things then why not give this a go anyway and try something a little different. This can work if you like the same things as well. Maybe there’s a genre neither of you really read, or maybe you want to try a new author. There’s no better way than to get a friend to come along on the ride with you!

Photo by Angie Aguilar on Unsplash

Make New Friends

Buddy reading is also a great way to make new friends. Along with buddy reading with Angel, I’ve read books with my lovely friends Annemieke and Inge in the past as well as a handful of other friends both online and my non-book community friends too. It’s a great way to break the ice with new people—don’t know how to make small talk? That’s fine because you just have to talk about how the book is making you feel, easy conversation!

So that’s my little list today. Do you enjoy buddy reading? Let me know in the comments.