17. All about our very first Book Tasting + we're in Bombay this week!
Come see us at Bombay Zine Fest, 13-15th Oct :)
Hey Reader,
Welcome back to another edition of the Letter to the Reader - our bi-monthly newsletter that’s all things books, reading and behind-the-scenes of the Project!
If you’re new here, welcome - grab a comfy chair and familiarise yourself with our world :) A few reads you could start with:
Why We Read + Our Word for 2023
How we’re working to enhance the way people read
How Reading Helped Me Survive the Pandemic
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We had a Book Tasting at the leap.club (af)fair on 8th Oct
Confused?
Well, imagine a restaurant you’ve seen pop up recently in your preferred neighbourhood. You’ve stalked them on Instagram and skimmed through the menu on your food app. You spot familiar dishes as well as some new ones that sound delicious.
But before you dive in and order, you’d like to get just an idea of the dishes on offer. Luckily for you, they have a tasting menu.
For us, the ‘restaurant’ was our Experience Zone at the leap.club (af)fair, and the tasting menu was our 42 Good Reads of the Internet zines:
42 different authors, and 42 works by them that you could sample before picking up an entire book by them.
Each good read is accessible by a single QR code - just scan and read!
We also showcased books from our collection that corresponded with these authors.
leap.club is a network only for women, with members consisting of some of the brightest and the best women from diverse careers. I (Nandini) have been a member since 2020 and have seen it transform into an amazing space over the years. Check them out on Instagram and their Substack
.On 8th October, they organised their annual event, the leap.club (af)fair - a day-long event featuring panels and discussions by top women leaders, speed networking sessions, stalls by member-led brands, and a whole lot of fun.
Big thanks to Ragini Das, co-founder, leap.club and Denise Moraes who curates their events, for putting all of this together for all of us.
A special edition leap.club mini zine was also made available to attendees. More on this very soon :)
And eeeeee we also got Project Bibliotherapy t-shirts for the very first time!!! Tell us what you think, pretty please?
A few more fun things we did:
Jar-Jar Thinks :)
We designed our own Book-Themed stickers for leap members to buy - for laptops, journals, or any place you’d like to show off your book love!
We created a Wall of Love where members wrote little notes of encouragement for us :)
Shoutout to Ishika Khaneja, our volunteer, who helped us execute the stall & manage it :)
This was the first time we ever invested in an entire Experience Zone at an event, and so the experience was crazy fun, with a lot of learnings to take home with us. It meant so much to us that so many women showed up with a genuine love for reading or for getting into the habit of reading :)
We also signed on many new Readers of 42, and personalized their zines on the spot. A biig thanks to all you new readers reading this: your welcome email is on its way!
For more on where we’re going to be, upcoming events both by us and ones we’re attending, here’s our events calendar which we’ll regularly be updating :)
Meet us at the Bombay Zine Fest - 13th - 15th Oct!
Speaking of events: we are in Bombay! We’re back to the Maximum City after exactly a year to participate in the Bombay Zine Fest organized by Bombay Underground. More about it from our recap post last year:
They have a brilliant line-up of graphic artists, writers, and other zine makers together in a 3-day festival for you to come, join in, buy and support indie artists and businesses. Here’s a peek at our zine haul from last year, bought from some of the wonderful artists we met:
The venue is the whimsical, gorgeous Candies Cafe in Bandra. We fell in love with this former Portuguese bungalow that’s a dreamy cafe now with delicious bites and lots of adorable cats lounging around.
Sign up as a Reader of 42 at Bombay Zine Fest and get Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of our zine personalized on the spot!
We’ll be there from 12 pm onwards on all 3 days. Here are the timings once more:
We’d love to also talk to you 1:1 and recommend books to you, help you with your reading journey and share tips and tricks on reading more :)
See you there!
Questions? Comments? Bouquets? Brickbats? Drop us an email at project[dot]bibliotherapy[at]gmail[dot]com or DM us on Instagram project.bibliotherapy
Until next time!
Nandini and Nitin :)