Why Buddy Reading Is My Best Reading
Feb 27 2023
Like many of you, I’ve been a reader all my life. As a child, I stole books to read under the covers with a flashlight. I scared myself witless reading Dean Koontz books well before I should have, convinced I would be murdered in my sleep. I trudged through assigned books during high school and college but devoured the latest buzzy bestsellers all summer long. When my bookish bestie and I started our podcast, Currently Reading Podcast, in August of 2018, I had no idea what kind of world would be opened to Meredith and me. I had tried book clubs before, where we all read a book together and then got together to discuss, but I, an extrovert, wanted real-time reading reactions. I wanted to share those wow, OMG, LOL moments with the other readers in my life. And the book clubs weren’t cutting it. (Truth be told, I’m also a bit book bossy, and I love choosing my own buddy read picks).The listeners of Currently Reading are a loyal group, and our Patreon supporters, or Bookish Friends, are the most loyal of them all. At any given moment, someone is posting in our private group that they want to try to read such-and-such book from their TBR list this year finally. Is anyone interested in a buddy read? And the answer is always yes. That led to me wishing aloud on the podcast for an app that would allow all of us to gather virtually and share real-time reactions to our buddy reads without accidentally spoiling for the “caboose” reader, which is what we affectionately term the person who is trying to stay caught up.