Let's build a reading habit together!

Hi, my name is Bhuvan, and I work with my colleagues—Krishna, Anurag, Kashish, Shubham, Bhavya, and Pranav—on all the content you see here and on Zerodha Markets.

I'm writing this post because we need your help.

But before I get to that, let me set some context. One of the reasons we started Zerodha Markets was the lack of quality financial content about Indian markets, which bothered us a lot. So, we all got together and said, “Let’s do something about it.”

(That, plus Nithin wanted us to do this, and we all really want to keep our jobs.)

The response has been phenomenal, to say the least. Every week, tens of thousands of people watch and read The Daily Brief, Beyond The Charts, Who Said What, It’s the Economy, Stupid, and The Big Perspective. Honestly, I still can’t wrap my head around the response. If someone had told me this initiative would be so successful when we launched, I would’ve asked if they were smoking some really good “desi maal” imported from the cold, hilly regions of North India.

Given how much this initiative has grown, we’ve been brainstorming about how we can be even more useful to all of you. I mean that sincerely. We love spending time learning about weird and fascinating things and then geeking out by explaining them to you. We’d really like to do more of that.

While thinking about this, one thing became clear: there aren’t many good “finance communities” in India.

By community, I mean a clean, safe space where people can interact with finance geeks, nerds, newbies, and experts. Think about it—if you have an embarrassing finance question, want quality advice on finance careers, or just want to bounce some insane ideas off someone, do you have a good circle of people you can turn to? (ChatGPT doesn’t count.) We think some of the other people reading this post could be that circle for you.

But there’s a problem: none of us really know what such a community would look like or how it would even work.

We’ve decided not to do anything until we’re clear about what we want to accomplish. This only makes sense if we identify a genuine, well-defined problem that such a group could solve. Without that, “building community” is just a hacky corporate trick to lure more customers—and that’s not what we’re here to do.

Here’s one idea we have, though:

It’s a new year, and that means most of us will be making resolutions. One common resolution is to read more. Maybe we can help with that.

We’re not saying this because we’re already avid readers. In fact, it’s the opposite. Everyone on our team struggles to read as much as we’d like. We keep making plans to read more, but then life gets in the way, and reading takes a backseat.

In my view, the odds of you doing something regularly are higher when you have someone to keep you accountable, encourage you, and talk to about it. From what I’ve seen, you’re more likely to stick with something if you have a friend or partner. I’ve noticed this at my gym—people with workout buddies tend to be regular. Maybe this applies to reading as well.

Why reading?

As a recovering reader, I can confidently say that if I’m a little less dumb today than I was a year ago, it’s because of the reading I’ve done (however little that may have been). Reading is the easiest antidote to stupidity.

That’s not just because of what books teach you. A year ago, I might’ve tried promoting a reading habit with some boring pitch like, “Books make you smarter, wiser, and help you discover new things.” But I would’ve been wrong.

The best thing about good books is that they fill your head with more questions than answers. Those questions drive you mad. Unanswered questions push you to read more. And the more you read, the more you keep reading. Before you know it, you’re constantly chasing ideas for the sheer joy of finding something cool.

Don’t read to look smarter around your friends. Read because it’s fun.

Books are amazing. When you truly surrender to a good book, you don’t emerge the same person you were before. As Stephen King said, “Books are uniquely portable magic.”

The Plan

In January 2025, we’re starting a book club—both online and offline. The plan is to pick one good book and read it together, talk about it, and learn from each other.

We want to keep it simple. We’re not here to show off or give you tons of homework. We don’t want to be another group where we suggest some massive, tedious book that you try to read, get bored of, and abandon.

Not at all.

We want this book club to be helpful. We want it to encourage you to make reading a habit—not something that stresses you out. If it’s hard for you to get around to reading, we get it. It’s hard for us too.

We want something that works for you, because chances are, that’s exactly what we need as well.

So, I’m writing this post to ask for your help. How do we design this book club so it keeps going? What would you like from us?

Here are some questions we’re thinking about:

• Format and Frequency: Should we do one book a month, or longer? Would you prefer weekly online discussions, monthly offline meetups, or both?

• Book Selection: Should we focus only on finance, or also include psychology, history, economics, and biographies?

• Community Spaces: Would you enjoy a WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, or Telegram group for daily check-ins and Q&A? Would you like to meet up in person?

• Value-Adds: Would summaries, key takeaways, or guest speakers help?

We'd love to hear your thoughts; please let us know by filling out this form.