Dehradun's Booknerds changing the way readers, authors connect

Booknerds, a Dehradun-based initiative, is revolutionizing the way books and authors connect.

The Beginning

Booknerds is a literary startup based out of Dehradun, India founded by husband-wife bibliophile duo Rohan and Neha Raj with the vision to connect book lovers and authors in India and beyond. What started as a small book lover's community in the quaint town of Dehradun, India in the foothills of the Himalayas has now grown into a movement that is connecting book lovers across India. Their mission is to spread their love for reading!

Rohan has a penchant for technology and books while Neha is a stickler for aesthetics and organisation. Rohan and Neha being from technical backgrounds bring the innovative mindset which has been missing from the publishing landscape. When they are not devouring books or working at their office cum library they can be found playing with their kids or searching the next cool cafe in town for the upcoming book club sessions!

What they do

Booknerds team brings to you the best content from the world of books through their book recommendation videos, book club events, podcast, live sessions and so much more.

Nominated for the best reading club of India by India Reading Olympiad, coordinating one of North India's largest lit fests are some of their accomplishments over the past six years! After continuously bringing innovation in the publishing industry for more than half a decade, Booknerds is now synonymous with a thriving community of readers and authors. Through their reading community, they have come to understand what readers, authors and publishers want.

Booknerds, have conducted over 150 offline meetups and literary events, book launches and hosted more than 250 authors which include the best in the business Devdutt Pattanaik, Anand Neelakantan, Vir Sanghvi, John Keay, Andy Griffiths, Moin Mir, Mayank Shekhar, Bill Aitken, Vineet Bajpai, Kevin Missal and more.

The sessions

Some of the marquee offline sessions have been

Lit Dangal

The immensely successful Lit Dangal where authors go up against each other in a 7 minute no holds barred standoff has seen participation and footfall of over 300 attendees and more than 25 published authors.

Potterhead Hangout

The coming together of Potterheads like never before with cosplay, book readings, quizzes have regaled Doonites for two editions now, the community has seen children, young adults and adults participate and be at loggerheads to win for their Houses!

Book Hustle

A concept that started as a joke between the co-founder duo about "people who don't return books" turned out to be an amazing experience for bibliophiles where they interact to convince each other to swap, exchange and hustle their books eventually leading to a Book Hustler.

Comicnerd

Rohan has always been a comic enthusiast, procuring loads of rental comics back in the 90s at the expense of studies sometimes!

A mix of Hindi and English comic books are discussed at the sessions including Amar Chitra Katha, Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, Marvel and DC with support from the likes of The Souled Store, TBS Planet and more.

The pandemic

When the pandemic hit Booknerds pivoted and started creating book recommendation videos, book unboxing videos, Reading Vlogs, Book Reels, Video Book reviews and more which caught the fancy of the young readers.

Some of the stalwarts of the publishing industry like Milee Ashwarya(Publisher, Penguin Random House), Priya and Kapil Kapoor(Roli Books), Aditi Maheshwari Goyal (Vani Prakashan), Namita Gokhale, Trisha Niyogi(Niyogi Books), Samir Somaiya (KitabKhana Bookstore, Mumbai) have featured on the video and audio podcast which brings the best literary content to bibliophiles with book discussions, author interviews and so much more.

The future

Disrupting the publishing industry has always been the ultimate goal and with a team of book enthusiasts to envy they are well on track to develop literary experiences which cater to the contemporary reader, if you love books do feel free to find them on social media, they love to chat endlessly about them!