Blog Post

Why Reading Is Better with Friends

Jason BoogAug 30 2023

When you share a great book with a friend, lover, or partner, you forge a new connection between two people. You explore this story world together, discovering new characters, places, and ideas. “My mother worried that because I was holed up in my room reading, I would become socially stunted,” writes Donalyn Miller in “The Book Whisperer.” “To the contrary, reading would connect me to the most important people in my life.” With our new Fable For You feed, you'll meet countless other readers and make buddy-read friendships for your next great book. And your personal feed is only as good as the people you follow!

Five people you should meet on Fable

I'd like to introduce you to some great people to follow on Fable, deepening your connections with the community and helping you make new friends along the way. justSam: A reader who loves literature, currently posting quotes from Anne of Green Gables. She also hosts the For the Love of Literature book club. Joshuas_Space: Joshua reads across a number of clubs, and hosts From Beginning to End book club for fantasy fans and SciFi Fanatics Book Club for people like me. Haidita: "A lover of good sentences," she hosts two book clubs reading great books: Toni Morrison's Altar and Literary Portals.Cornelius Van Ess: One of Fable's earliest users, he hosts the Scifi/Fantasy Book Club but reads across genres.Skylar Grey: This post is all you need to read: "I'm going to quit my job, become a feral mountain woman, and just read in the mountains all day. id love nothing more.⛰️

So, what exactly is Fable For You?

Fable For You is a place to have meaningful conversations about stories in a more open, unstructured, and personalized social feed. Fable’s new Home section of the app should feel familiar to the experience you’re used to on other social platforms.You’ll find an endless world of bookish content to explore—book lists, reviews, free-form thoughts, reading updates, suggested clubs, and more. You’ll see content from other readers you follow, those you don’t yet follow but may be interested in based on your similar or shared taste in books, and members of Fable’s editorial team. You can interact with content in your feed by liking and commenting to spark conversation and deepen the dialogue around interesting bookish topics. In the Fable For You feed, you can share your thoughts about whatever you’re reading, get inspired by other readers, stay updated on literary news and trends, and discover new book recommendations—all on one page of personalized suggestions.

Finding your Fable For You feed

It's easy to start exploring your personalized Fable For You feed on Fable. Once you download the Fable app to your smartphone or tablet, just follow these simple steps.1. Open the Fable app2. Tap the "Home" icon in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.3. Scroll through the stories curated just for you!4. Tap on the profile picture of anyone you meet in your Fable For You feed. Tap "Follow" to receive more book lists, club recommendations, reviews, and posts from that person!5. Tap the "+" icon in the lower right-hand corner of your Fable For You feed to create a public post. You can tag any one of the millions of books in our catalog to discuss! Home feed gif

Why reading is better with friends

Donalyn Miller loves to share books with her husband, and he turns to her for great stories to read together. Miller describes the special role books play in her relationship:

“Books are love letters (or apologies) passed between us, adding a layer of conversation beyond our spoken words. Neither one of us could imagine spending our life with someone who did not read.”

Reading together can help you connect even more deeply with somebody, literally sharing your thoughts and feelings as the other person reads.What book do you share like a love letter with people you care about? You can also explore thousands of other book lists on Fable, decoding your personal taste with our guided recommendations. It’s easy to make your own list as well!

Make a great book list.

Just finished reading a book and have the urge to share your thoughts with the world? It’s time to write your review and highlight your favorite sentences! You can also import your Goodreads reviews to your Fable account!

Rate and review your favorite books!

We also make it easy to launch your free book club. With our platform, you can host every aspect of an online discussion at a single destination to reach readers and build safe online communities regardless of location or time zone.

Start your own book club today!

By Jason Boog

Jason Boog is a writer living in Los Angeles and part of the editorial team at Fable. OR Books published "The Deep End: The Literary Scene During the Great Depression and Today," his book about how different writers survived the Great Depression. Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone imprint published "Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age," his handbook about how to raise kids who love to read. His work has appeared in The Believer, The Awl, Salon, NPR Books, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Peace Corps Writers, and other outlets. He was the West Coast correspondent for Publishers Weekly.