Buddy Reading 101

Buddy reading is when two or more people commit to reading a book together. Though very similar to book clubs, it is more casual and can easily be arranged virtually. So far, I have done two buddy reads – one with my friend Varun in India and another with Ariel in the United States (I’m oin Canada, if you did not know). Ariel is helping me write this post today and we bring our combined experience to help you get started with your first and next buddy read. 🙂

Note that buddy reading is not a reading challenge. It is the experience of reading and discussing a book with fellow book lovers. Buddy reading is an excellent way to share your burning thoughts with others during your reading experience, and when you find the right people to buddy read with, you will want to discuss more books with them! 

Why engage in buddy reading?

Buddy reading is a great way to explore a book further. It gets you putting your thoughts into words and get your buddy’s opinion about parts of the book that stood out to you. If your aim is to become a better writer, buddy readings helps in articulation of complex ideas, often letting you draw on your prior experiences and books you have read.

As avid book readers, we understand the feeling we get when we are so engaged with our book that we have the burning need to share with others what we are currently going through! Buddy reading provides an excellent way to get those thoughts out there and have a shared reading experience with others. 

Set up for a successful buddy read

For a successful buddy read you would need to agree upon:

1. A book
2. Who all are reading it
3. Means of discussion
4. Time to complete reading
5. Milestones to discuss

Best practices – The C.H.A.R.T.

• Communication – All participants are able to discuss the book during agreed-upon times on the agreed-upon platform, whether that be on Discord, Twitter, etc. We have used Google Docs extensively and that is a great tool to use for live discussions. If you are not familiar with Google Docs (they are only for Gmail ids), check out this tutorial.

• Hopes and Expectations – Another good practice before you start reading the book is to talk to your buddy about why you want to read the book and what you plan to gain out of it and the buddy read itself.

• Access – All participants have access to agreed-upon book, whether is it from the library, hard copy or audiobook. Unless you are hoping to talk about the experience of reading in a particular format, the book medium does not have to be the same.

• Reactions – Throughout your read, there will be lots of opportunities to share your reactions. Create agreed-upon check-ins so the participants of the buddy read can know when to share their progress and emotions along the way!

• Timeline – Create a timeline that works for everyone. This considers the time that each participant can put into reading the book, while ensuring that other commitments are also met. With the timeline, you can best achieve all the above points! 

Building a Timeline

Gather some general statistics about the book and the participants.

• How many pages does the book have?
• How much time the participants want to spend in reading the book? Eg number of weeks or months. 
• How long will it take to read the book? Check out readinglength.com for an estimate of number of hours.
• How many pages at minimum can you commit to in a week? On average, according to the Internet, most people can read about 20 pages in 30 minutes. 

It is important to find a pace that works for everyone! When Ariel and I were planning our buddy read for The Farm, we intentionally over-estimated the amount of time that it would take us to get to various points of the book, and then adjusted as needed based on both of our progress. 

FAQs

• What if one of the participants does not like the book?

Our solution to this is for each of the participants to suggest a handful of books, and then everyone notes on each list what looks interesting to them in order to find a book that everyone is interested in.

Sometimes these books come up during conversations too. When I mentioned I wanted to reread The Night Circus and Ariel said she hadn’t read it yet, we knew we had a potential buddy read right there.

• I want to buddy read but can’t find anyone! Do you know someone?

Through our book bingo, #armedwithabingo, there may be others also looking for a buddy read! If you’re interested in completing a bingo spot through a buddy read, let us know and we will create a thread  for those interested! Don’t know what #armedwithabingo is? It’s a personalized book bingo for 2020 where we celebrate every book you read. Find more information here. 

Any other questions that we can answer? Post them in the comments below. Also, are you planning to buddy read some books in 2020? Can’t wait to hear from you!