This article is an investigation into the Reading Partners scheme at a large inner London comprehensive school in England; this research comes from a small scale study I carried out as part of my Masters of Teaching at the Institute of Education, University College London. Reading Partners is a project whereby younger and older students within the secondary school education system are paired up to read aloud together in the school library every week over the course of a school year. The purpose of my study was to explore the relationships between these readers and to further understand what is gained from such shared reading. I argue that such collaborative reading aloud provides fertile ground for students' development and that the sessions go beyond 'just' reading and, in fact, make reading become a 'social' activity. The significance of the personal relationship these students build and all that happens 'beyond' reading texts together should not be underestimated.