Hello!!
Welcome to what I think is my favorite day of Five Fall Favorites this year…buddy-reads! I’ve basically been waiting for this one ever since I saw it as a category. 🤭 I don’t know that I had really heard of, thought about, or even done a buddy read two and a half to three years ago, but ever since I realized they were a thing, I’ve loved the idea of them and doing them! 🤩
I’ve also sorta included sibling read-a-louds in this, as they definitely count as buddy-reads. 😁
Behold, my top 5 buddy-reads!!
1. Sherlock Holmes Series by Arthur Conan Doyle
My Sherlock Holmes buddy-read has been pretty much the most epic and fun buddy-read I have ever done. I started reading the complete Sherlock Holmes series with a friend sometime in the beginning of the summer of last year. A few of the stories or chapters we’ve read around the same day or just waited for each other to read, but mostly we’ve read the whole series chapter by chapter, story by story, at the same time as each other. We’re aaaalllmost done with the very last one (His Last Bow) and I’m super excited to finally mark off that I’ve read all the canonized so to speak Sherlock Holmes. It’s been…seriously such a fun ride. *grins* So many good memories made from this buddy-read!!
2. The Kitten Files Series by Perry Elisabeth Kirkpatrick
I think I picked this one up and just started randomly reading out loud in front of my younger brother, and he loved it tons right from the beginning and begged me to keep reading. My younger sister joined in and loved it too. We have yet to finish actually reading this series…but looking forward to reading it aloud some more whenever we have a chance. XD
3. On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (Wingfeather Saga) By Andrew Peterson
This one has got to be the most buddy-read of any book I’ve ever read.
It started with my younger sister. I had gotten it from the library as an interlibrary loan back when it had a dark blue cover and was loving it and mentioned to my sister I thought she would love it. She gave the cover a look, looked at me, and shook her head. She was fully convinced that nothing with a title like “On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness” could possibly be a good book and that I must be reading a pretty bad book. I finally convinced her to just let me read the first chapter out loud to her, and when we got to the end she reluctantly agreed she kinda needed to know what was next, and then by the second chapter she was begging me to continue reading.
In the middle of the second book, my older sister happened to be in the room when we were reading it out loud, so we figured we might as well start at the beginning.
Then…my brother wanted to read it too, so we figured we might as well all start over from the beginning, and my sisters didn’t mind hearing it again.
A few times one of the three siblings missed out when we read a chapter or section, and I had to read aloud that portion for them to catch up.
All in all, I read the first two books probably around 4-5 times, book 3 around 3 times, and book 4 only 2 times.
Basically, we love this series, and it was super fun that even one of my older siblings liked me reading it out loud enough to want to follow along. Who knows, maybe we’re due for another buddy read of this and I can read book 1 out loud for a 6th time! 😆
4. The Green Ember by S.D. Smith
I distinctly remember starting this one. We were all (most of my siblings and my mom) in the garage applying the last few coats of finish to the wooden bunkbed we were going to put in my room and didn’t feel particularly like music but were getting fairly bored. I had seen The Green Ember series around on a few blogs (I think maybe it was Once Upon An Ordinary, actually) and I noticed the library actually had it available to borrow as an online audiobook so I just started playing it. Mostly at first the reaction was, what a cute bunny story…but gradually everyone got quieter and was listening more intently.
Every chance we could get afterward, in the car, working on something together, etc., or just my sister and I sitting in the garage early before it was time to work on school listening, we devoured this book.
It’s such an epic, darkness-versus-light story. Somehow at a certain point, you almost forget it’s about rabbits. Also, this is probably the only book I’ve ever read, and determined not only that the audiobook is tolerable…but that the audiobook is the most superior format to enjoy the book. Seriously, the audiobook for this series is the best.
5. Nicholas Bishop by P.D. Atkerson
This one is a tiny bit of a side note since I don’t think I actually finished buddy-reading this one with anyone. I originally read this book on my own, but when I heard two friends of mine were in the middle of buddy-reading it and I had a moment to spare, I had read the book so many times that I just jumped in and buddy-read where they were. This is one of my favorite P.D. Atkerson books ever and just randomly jumping in and buddy reading it with some friends is a super fun memory. 🙂
And look, we’re halfway through, only three more days of book recs to go! Hope you’ve been enjoying some of the stories behind these books as well as finding some new-to-you, awesome books to read in the future!
Thanks to my ultimate buddy reader who I know is reading this post…thanks for reading basically all of SH with me (we’ll finish soon I know, no hurry) as well as being an altogether splendi-iron friend and my go-to friend to provide sometimes-semi-obligatory continual book updates, narration, rants, gushing, eye rolls/facepalms, honest thoughts, etc. as well as giving me all of the above (well, maybe not the eye rolls/facepalms) in return. This post is dedicated to you.
Plus, I did kinda consult you on some of those tough calls for which books to do for the other categories and you’re the one who told me I should do Five Fall Favorites this year in the first place. 😉 *hugs* ❤
Make sure to check out the blog party host blog @ onceuponanordinary.wordpress.com/blog/ to hear about Kate’s favorite buddy-reads and keep up on all the rest of the Five Fall Favorite blog posts!
What’s one of your favorite buddy-reads ever? Have you ever read a book chapter-by-chapter at the same time as someone else or just been reading the same book around the same time as a friend?
Faith on the Farm 