1. Hello, 2023
A new chapter begins...
Dear Reader,
Happy new year, and greetings from Project Bibliotherapy - a reader-funded startup run by two lifelong readers with one mission - to nudge you to read more, read better.
Through these letters, we will be sharing regular updates on the first and third Thursday1 of every month with you. (2023 Resolution #1)
Before we begin, we’d like to thank the 111 people who joined the Readers of 42 in 2022, and are the first to receive this letter in their inbox.
Thank you for being the first folks to invest in enhancing your reading habit with us. Your contribution & support has made it possible for us to go full speed ahead with our mission to find our first 10,000 Readers of 42 before the end of this year. (2023 Resolution #2)
Read More in 2023 with us
If you want to build a reading habit from scratch this year, or enhance your existing one, check out our debut livestream session where we talk about our reading journey, why we read2, what works for us3 and how we help our Readers of 42 through curation, creation and experiences.4 [52 mins]
Interested? Come, be a part of our journey as we read more, read better ourselves, this year and beyond. (2023 Resolution #3)
Project Bibliotherapy in 2022
Crazy. The one word which sums up last year for us.
We stepped out like never before & introduced our project in person to fellow readers, authors, booksellers, publishers, anyone who gave us a few seconds of their time.
Our 42 Good Reads zine acted as our calling card, our portfolio, the best of what we had recommended since the inception of the project in March 2020.5
Jaipur Lit Fest. Bombay Zine Fest. Spoken Fest. Bangalore Lit Fest. 2022 sure has been quite festive.
In other news from around the galaxy, Douglas Adams6 also contributed to the festivities by playing cupid for us #HitchedHikers :)
To paraphrase the original hoopy frood7, “we may not have gone where we intended to go, but we think we have ended up where we needed to be.”
Life, the Universe and Everything changed for us this year, in ways we never imagined, thanks to our love for books and reading. And to showcase our gratitude, we inaugurated a new Christmas tradition8 for our biblio-cave.
This tree consists of all the books on our shelves written by the authors featured in the 42 Good Read zine Volume 19, almost the entire Terry Pratchett bibliography and 90 books signed for us by the authors we had the pleasure of meeting this year.
We could go on and on about 2022. But for brevity’s sake, we urge you to scroll through our Instagram feed at leisure. Do let us know your favourites :)
But before we move to the exclusive Readers of 42 zone, here’s a nudge to join Frood For Thought - a Telegram channel where Nitin and Chuck share one curated article every day. It’s free!
End of free preview. Paid content below this line.
(But while we sort out our Stripe global payments backend paperwork to enable paywalls, keeping our Readers of 42 zone open for all)
What’s in store for Readers of 42
As mentioned earlier, we serve you in 3 ways - curation, creation and experiences.
Curation - The Endless Reading Challenge on Telegram:
Since September 2022, we have been sharing one link from our reading lists at 6 AM, 12 PM and 6 PM IST every day via this exclusive subscribers-only channel for your benefit.
If you haven’t subscribed so far, search for ‘Welcome to the Readers of 42’ in your inbox and join using the link in your welcome mail.
This repository contains all our latest reading recommendations in one place - searchable via hashtags, and also serves as the database for the 42 Good Reads of the Internet: Volume 2 zine (Work-in-progress, coming soon)
Creation - Phased launch of our suite of six Substack paid publications:
We are launching our first ever Substack Readathon at
next Thursday, January 12th, 2023.
Over four weeks, we would be sharing one story every day from this classic collection of terrific tales written by Alexander Raskin in 1961, which disappeared in 1991 courtesy the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We wish to recreate a ‘shared childhood experience’ for many who grew up in the pre-internet world, and also to introduce these lost stories to newer generations. Join us next week :)
Upcoming Experiences: Save the dates. Come say hi!
Amitava Kumar And Abhay K, in conversation at Kunzum GK2, Delhi [January 6th]
Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 [January 19th-23rd]
[Spot us in last edition’s after film at 1:32 and 4:11 :)]
For more updates, subscribe to the broadcast-only Readers of 42 Whatsapp community. [Link in welcome mail/ roundup sent to your inbox]
Bonus: What we streamed this past fortnight
Watch - Vir Das: Landing on Netflix | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Disney+Hotstar (we FINALLY saw the movie, and it was fun! But the greatest book in the galaxy deserves a better screen adaptation)
Listen - The Seen and the Unseen Ep 309: The Adda at the End of the Universe: Roshan Abbas & Vikram Sathaye chilling with Amit Varma for 7+ hours - don’t miss it! Lots of fantastic insights mixed with humour, incredible singing and the best line of advice for creators - 'Have the heart of a poet, the skin of an elephant'.
That’s all for now, folks. Thank you so much for reading!
If you are yet to be a Reader of 42, we welcome you to enhance your reading journey with us. Support us by clicking the link below (UPI / cards work) and you’re on board :)
Feel free to browse through our 2020-2022 archives at bibliotherapy.stck.me, and if you aren’t already, follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
If you would like to partner with us towards our cause of spreading the love of reading and books for your communities, organizations personal or professional networks, feel free to reach out via DM or email.
Till next time!
Your friendly neighbourhood bibliophiles,
Nitin and Nandini
PS. This issue was written by me (Nitin), and the next one will be penned by Nandini. Please share feedback directed towards me (Insta - @dont.panic.dont.try). Thanks in advance.
Why Thursday, you ask? - “This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays” ~ Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Read the Origin Story, first published as the captions of the first three posts on Instagram on 22nd March, 2020
Check out our DNA 42 zine - 42 goodies revolving around Douglas Noel Adams in one place - launched on Towel Day 2022 and featured on towelday.org
Hoopy: "a really together person." Frood: "a really amazingly together person."
Inspiration courtesy Katie Fulton
And a few more from the upcoming 42 Good Reads of the Internet Volume 2