"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." ~ Haruki Murakami
Welcome to another issue of Bibliotherapy Zine - an effort to showcase goodreads at random from my reading history, in an attempt to nudge you to read more, to read beyond the current bestsellers / trending lists. Hope it helps! ~ Nitin
(WANT TO BOOST YOUR READING HABIT this year? JOIN THE TELEGRAM CHANNEL [T.ME/READMORE2021] TO RECEIVE REGULAR NUDGES.
[I] HARUKI MURAKAMI:- NORWEGIAN WOOD (1987) + KAFKA ON THE SHORE (2005)
The year - 2015. I spot the title of my favourite Beatles song while browsing a friend's bookshelf. I borrow it for my next read. Courtesy a tune composed 50 years earlier in England, I'm introduced to a new author from Japan...
Out of the six Murakamis I've had the pleasure of reading so far, Kafka on the Shore is the closest to heart. Not only does its protagonist get to live inside a library for a while, but last summer, this book also helped in ending one of my worst reading slumps ever...
Instead of stuffing your head with social media every night, try this...
"What you’ve got to do from this night forward is stuff your head with more different things from various fields . . . I’ll give you a program to follow every night, very simple program. For the next thousand nights, before you go to bed every night, read one short story. That’ll take you ten minutes, 15 minutes. Okay, then read one poem a night from the vast history of poetry. Stay away from most modern poems. It’s crap. It’s not poetry! It’s not poetry. Now if you want to kid yourself and write lines that look like poems, go ahead and do it, but you’ll go nowhere. Read the great poets, go back and read Shakespeare, read Alexander Pope, read Robert Frost. But one poem a night, one short story a night, one essay a night, for the next 1,000 nights. From various fields: archaeology, zoology, biology, all the great philosophers of time, comparing them. Read the essays of Aldous Huxley, read Loren Eiseley, great anthropologist. . . I want you to read essays in every field. On politics, analyzing literature, pick your own. But that means that every night then, before you go to bed, you’re stuffing your head with one poem, one short story, one essay—at the end of a thousand nights, Jesus God, you’ll be full of stuff, won’t you?" ~ Ray Bradbury (2001)
Watch the scintillating lecture in full below... (54 minutes)
Better than any of your Twitter Spaces / Clubhouse rooms.
Also, Find an extensive collection of wisdom from Ray Bradbury here...
If you want any assistance with picking up your next read, feel free to message me on Instagram / LinkedIn. See you soon with Zine #17. Till then, happy reading! ~ Nitin
JOIN THE TELEGRAM CHANNEL [T.ME/READMORE2021] TO RECEIVE BIBLIOTHERAPY UPDATES, OR SIGN UP BELOW TO READ MORE...
Edit- We have moved to Razorpay for payments within India.
For readers outside India:
Sign up for the Readers of 42 at a one-time fee of $50 to unlock access to the following benefits:
Benefits:
1. Access to the Readers of 42 Library on Substack - readersof42.substack.com
2.Access to Global Weekly Readathons - Every Thursday in 2025, receive nudges to read 5 pieces of writing at 8:42 AM IST
3. Digital Copies of 42: The Curious Reader's Companion Volumes 1-5 - Swipe and tap to access a selection of 42 hand-picked reads, across genres, by 42 different authors in each volume + podcasts, videos, bonus links, writing prompts, and more
4. Access to The Biblio Lab - a Private Newsletter on Substack - Be the first to know about our curation, creation & community experiments and take part in them.
- Nandini & Nitin
Write a comment ...